AUTUMN | OPINION
Are you OK ?
Backup Tech provides financial support and wellbeing aid to live event industry technical professionals , crew and production personnel . Here , the charity ’ s chair Piers Shepperd outlines the ways in which it is helping event profs and provides details of newly launched campaign Are You OK ?
The touring industry is an exciting place to work . It ’ s creative , it ’ s high octane , you get to travel to lots of amazing places , you become part of a touring family and get to put on brilliant shows , right ? Right . But it ’ s also high pressure , involves long hours , unnatural sleep patterns and maybe months away from home . It means getting on a bus at the end of the show to go to the next one .
Unwinding at the end of an adrenalin fuelled gig ( it ’ s not just the band that gets hyped ) in all likelihood doesn ’ t mean having a cup of herbal tea and getting in your bunk for a good night ’ s sleep . It can understandably mean cracking out the beers and having a drink or two . And whilst there is often a feeling of camaraderie , there can also be a one of isolation . Maybe you ’ re not getting on with your crew mates , you ’ re homesick or just plain exhausted .
All of that can , and often does , take a toll on people ’ s mental health . That ’ s why Backup is working so hard , not only to de-stigmatise mental health issues , but also by enabling freelancers to access free Mental Health First Aider training ( provided by Music
Support ), to ensure that in every crew there is at least one trained MHFA crew member for every 20 crew members .
If you ’ ve got someone on every tour that the crew knows they can go to if they ’ re having a problem , but
is also trained to spot the signs that someone is struggling and knows how to approach them in the right way , then it ’ s going to help . Backup ’ s tag line is “ We help people get back on their feet ”. That means we ’ re there for you in a crisis , but we also want to help
Piers Shepperd with crisis prevention , as we strongly believe it will help those at risk from stress , addiction and poor welfare .
We ’ ve also started an initiative called Are You OK ? to signpost easy , confidential , and sensitive access to both urgent and non-urgent mental health support . Working with industry suppliers and venues , we ’ re providing a single point of access for the technical industry ’ s crew members and freelancers by utilising industry equipment , noticeboards , and venues to place prominent campaign posters with information and QR code providing direct access to support resources . We want to break the damaging stigma around mental health by allowing industry professionals a safe and confidential space to admit they may not be OK and signpost them to urgent and nonurgent mental health support .
There are already a lot of companies signed up to support the campaign , which is fantastic , but we want it to be industry wide . It ’ s simple to do ; we ’ ve created the artwork to download , plus access to free stickers via Le Mark and inbuilt QR code on new cases via 5 Star Cases .
“ We ’ re there for you in a crisis , but we also want to help with crisis prevention .”
If you want to become a Mental Health First Aider , the training is free for freelancers via our AJ Bursary and you can find out more information at www . backuptech-uk , where you can also find all the details for the Are You OK ? campaign .
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