NABS Launches Community Consultation During Mental Health Awareness Week

NABS is progressing its work in advancing mental wellness with the launch of its solutions-focused community consultation, running through spring and summer this year. The launch takes place today to mark Mental Health Awareness Week (MHAW), which runs from 15-19th May.  

The name of the consultation is All Ears, with the name reflecting that after the industry has gone All In for the Advertising Association’s biennial census, the charity will be ‘All Ears’; opening up a deeper dive conversation about the state of mental wellness in the industry. 

All Ears aims to identify, prioritise and accelerate what today’s advertising, marketing and media community needs most from NABS, as well as testing out some of NABS’ newest thinking around the future of mental wellness.  

NABS will gather information, insight and inspiration from voices from across all corners of the industry, ensuring it hears from a diverse range of backgrounds, identities and perspectives. The charity will consult in various formats to take a deep dive into how its current support can go even further in 2024 and beyond.  

At the end of the consultation, NABS will produce a full report detailing what it has learned, and how this insight will help to shape its strategic plan and charity and commercial offers, as well as providing guidance for organisations and other bodies who can influence systemic change in the industry. 

All Ears will build on NABS’ already extensive work advancing the mental wellness of the industry, much of which has been supporting adlanders for many years. Mental wellness support is the consistent thread running throughout NABS’ offer and is the foundation for all its services. 

NABS’ Q1 statistics recently revealed the number one reason for calling its support team in 2022 and in Q1 2023 was for emotional support – with two thirds of these calls specifically relating to mental health challenges. This was validated in last week’s All In census findings, which showed a consistent picture, with a third of respondents affected by stress and anxiety, 

NABS’ deep industry insight was further corroborated when delving deeper into the census findings. The charity’s Diversity in Focus research was published last year and explored the experiences of those from marginalised groups in the industry. These findings resulted in the creation of NABS’ Inclusive Leader training programme, developed to support the industry to attract and retain a broad range of talent. Consistent with NABS’ findings, All In’s results also showed that those from marginalised groups experience higher levels of mental health challenges, especially regarding stress and anxiety at work.  

Sue Todd, CEO, NABS and chair of the All In action group on mental health, spoke at last week’s summit, focusing on the importance of working together to help support workers at all levels.  

Sue says, “NABS is a huge believer in the power of community when it comes to advancing mental wellness, and we need to work together with the people we serve to make sure that NABS continues to provide effective support and insight in this space. We’re really looking forward to hearing as many views as possible via the consultation which we’ll be conducting in new and interesting ways - from discussion groups and webinars to surveys and challenge groups. 

“At NABS, we can see from our frontline stats that constantly adapting to a volatile and uncertain world affects everyone’s sense of mental wellness. Each individual’s challenges are different, but the most powerful response is collective.

“We can see the evidence in this collective approach from the results of the All In census results around experiences of sexual harassment in the industry, which have reduced significantly since 2021. Our partnership through timeTo with the Advertising Association and WACL has tangibly demonstrated that when we collaborate, we co-create positive change.  

“If you’re passionate about engaging in meaningful conversations that will help shift industry culture and drive forward effective mental wellness support, sign up to take part in NABS’ community consultation.” 

The All Ears consultation will launch formally today (Wednesday 17th May) To take part, visit here.