I’m worried about someone else in music

Whether you are part of a single team or a freelancer regularly moving from one team to another, the people you connect with each day in music will often be the first to notice when you’re having a harder time. You’ll often notice if they’re struggling too. 

It’s important to know what you can do if you are worried about the mental health of a teammate.

If your teammate has expressed suicidal intent or an intent to cause harm to others, call 999. You don’t need to keep it confidential. 

The NHS provides free advice for people who need urgent help – call 111 and select the mental health option.

Tell your teammate about specific support for the challenges they are facing, our website has a list of organisations that provide support for people in music.

Encourage your teammate to make a GP appointment. If they don’t feel able to, you can still share your concerns with their GP surgery if they tell you who their GP is. Their GP will not be able to share any information with you about your teammate or confirm what they will do with the information you share, but they will be better positioned to support if your teammate does decide to seek help from them. 

For non-urgent situations, help them think through support available from: friends and family; music industry (peers, trade bodies they might be a member of etc.); professional services (charities, recovery groups etc.) 

You don’t need all the answers. Listening is useful. Your aim should usually be to help them feel accepted and identify where they can get any support they might need. 

Some quick tips to help:

• Ask open questions that help them identify what could help them: 
  • Have you been through anything like this before? Did anything help? 
  • Have you got anyone around who you know could help?
• Try to avoid sharing your own experiences back, giving solutions or minimising what they are feeling
• Don’t feel pressured to commit to taking actions to help that you aren’t able to

Whether you are part of a team for a single event or have worked with the same people for years, you can play an important part in making music a supportive space for the people around you:

Share information: displaying information about mental health support in locations where you work or on your social platforms where others in music can see them builds positive awareness

Have conversations: normalise talking about feelings by checking in with others and being honest about your good and not-so-good days

Buddy up on self-care activities and goals: running clubs, journaling slots, healthy lunch breaks, online yoga etc.

Share a routine: structure is great for wellbeing but can be hard to make on a freelance schedule, aligning a routine with others for things like breaks, admin etc, can help, even if you’re working on different jobs.

Look after yourself: if a teammate is leaning on you more than you can cope with then it’s okay to:

• Explain you are sorry for what they are going through and that you want them to get the right help but that you are not able to give the support they need.
• Suggest where they can get some further help.

If you are part of a bigger team, it’s ok to have a sensitive check-in with others to see if they have noticed the changes too — they might be able to support too so that you are not dealing with it on your own.

You can call the Music Minds Matter 24/7 free helpline for confidential emotional support around the situation with your teammate, or to discuss anything else on your mind: 0808 802 8008.

Music Minds Matter’s Clinical Partner in the delivery of mental health services is the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM).

We’ve created a leaflet with practical guidance on how to support your colleagues, please find it below.