Support Act Launches Minimum Standards For A Mentally Healthy Music Industry

Support Act, the music industry's leading charity in wellbeing and crisis relief, has unveiled its inaugural 'Minimum Standards for a Mentally Healthy Music Industry'.

The standards have been developed in consultation with representatives from the industry and regulatory authorities and have taken into account the actions proposed in the National Mental Health Commission’s National Workplace Initiative. They hope to rectify the disparities in mental well-being in the music industry and have identified three areas for action, including protecting, responding and promoting, to create mentally healthy workplaces. 

This includes a commitment to provide workplaces that are psychologically safe, and which take proactive measures to address safety at work issues including bullying, harassment, discrimination, sexual misconduct, racism, ageism, homophobia and transphobia.

Clive Miller, CEO of Support Act, explained: “Our recent research clearly articulated the need for work environments that are safe for everyone’s mental and physical health, and this was strongly reinforced by last week’s release of the excellent Raising Their Voices report.

“As leaders in the mental health and workplace wellbeing space, it was the logical next step to produce a set of Minimum Standards that support our music business community in implementing standards that are becoming uniform across the Australian business landscape.

“These standards are voluntary and self regulating, and recognise that creating mentally healthy workplaces takes time and requires ongoing attention and that different workplaces may have different needs depending on their size.

“We encourage everyone in our industry to show their commitment to making cultural change and to creating a sense of belonging for all in our industry, by taking on board the Standards now.”

In addition to the Standards, the charity has also announced the launch of its updated training program next month - Access All Areas: Creating A Safe And Thriving Music Industry For All.

The free, online program has been developed in partnership with Music Victoria to teach attendees practical strategies on how to identify and call out harmful behaviour in the workplace, specifically harassment, bullying, discrimination and sexual misconduct.

Support Act has taken the most important first step of setting a benchmark for how industry should behave, pioneering a safer and mentally well music industry for all. This comes at an important time after the recent inquiry into workplace safety revealed shocking results. The standards set by Support Act will hopefully encourage all industry professionals to hold themselves and each other accountable and encourage a sense of collective responsibility to make the industry a safer and more enjoyable place for all. 

You can review the full set of standards on Support Act's website here.