Our mission

Change inspired by research 

Our 2019 Looking Glass Report revealed that our industry is in a mental health crisis. It found that 9 in 10 people working behind the scenes have experienced a mental health problem, and half have considered taking their own lives. It looked at the ways these experiences vary across the industry, concluding that “those working in Production and Development appeared to face acute risk factors for their mental wellbeing at work, including extreme working hours, high levels of bullying and high incidence of sexual harassment compared with averages across the survey.’’  

It’s time to put mental health and wellbeing centre-stage and build a happier, healthier industry to be part of. If we are to attract and retain the best and most diverse talent, create compelling award-winning content, and be a leading player in the global moving image industry, we must address the root causes in our working practices.  

Many individuals, companies and industry bodies want to make these changes, but don’t know where to start. More and more productions have approached us for guidance.  

Best practice to put into action

 The Toolkit is one of the ways we are helping to meet this need. It gives you clear, concise resources, free templates, examples of industry ‘best practice’, and expert advice, to help you embed wellbeing at every stage of a production.  

Discover more about the mental health research underpinning our work on The Film and TV Charity website

Created by people within the industry 

The Toolkit has been co-produced with practitioners from across the industry on multiple productions of varying size and scale, bringing together freelancers, industry workers with lived experience, those living with mental health conditions, as well as a diverse range of people from groups who are under-represented and face additional barriers in the sector. 

Like our other resources developed for the industry and its workers, including our Support Line, Freelancer Wellbeing Hub and our Bullying Advice Service, it builds on what we’ve learned in practice, and on brilliant work from other organisations. You will find practical advice on how to make mentally healthy productions – whether you’re working on set, in an edit, in an office planning or researching, bringing contributors together or working in post-production.  

The Change Makers

The charity brought together a coalition of industry Changemakers – leaders and trailblazing individuals who worked closely with the charity on developing and trialling The Whole Picture Toolkit and who see action to support mentally healthy productions as being representative of real, positive change.

Discover what they have to say about the toolkit in the video here. 

It’s time to make a change. #LetsReset