Click here to access helpful videos and a guide to consent and prevention of sexual violence.
Key Crisis Helplines
If you need any support there are a range of organisations that can help:
Sexual Assault Crisis Line 1800 806 292 / sacl.com.au
1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732
Support Act 1800 959 500 / https://supportact.org.au/resources/sexual-health-and-safety/
Support Act is exclusively for those who work in the Australian music community.
Safe Steps: Family Violence Response Centre 1800 015 188 / www.safesteps.org.au
Telephone counselling, information and referral to safe accommodation in Victoria for women and children experiencing domestic violence.
WIRE (Women’s Information and Referral Exchange) 1300 134 130 / www.wire.org.au
Djirra 1800 105 303
Support service available to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and particularly to Aboriginal people who are currently experiencing family violence or have in the past.
Switchboard 1800 184 527 / www.qlife.org.au
Phone and web counselling for the LGBTIQA+ community.
For emergencies please contact 000
Hope Assistance Local Tradies (HALT) offers its service to the music and arts Industries.
HALT is a grassroots, suicide prevention charity promoting Mental Health awareness in blue collar industries. They aim to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and provide tools and resources to have a tough conversation with a mate and to seek help.
This is typically delivered via lived experience talks in the workplace, sporting club, hardware stores and the like. HALT also delivers Safe Talk training.
HALT is extending the invitation to the music and arts industries. They have musicians, visual artists and performers within their team. If you have a venue, production, business or group, HALT would love to come and talk to you. No group is too small.
HALT is federally funded and is able to offer these talks and resources at no charge to you.
Find out more about HALT.
Support Act's Guide to Mental Health and Wellbeing is a regularly updated resource of evidence-based information, articles, videos, plus app and book recommendations, specifically curated for those who work in music.
You can access the guide here: https://supportact.org.au/resources/mental-health-resources/
Whether you want to learn how to give or get help, look after your own wellbeing or hear how others in the music community have overcome challenges, this guide is for you. If you need additional support contact the Support Act Wellbeing Helpline now on 1800 959 500.
From the crowd, working in the music industry can look like a pure dream. But the more we talk about mental health and wellbeing, the more we learn that artists, managers, roadies, and the people in their lives often find themselves facing just as much struggle as they find and face success. The hours, the expectations, the stakes, the pay, and the habits together can make for a pretty tumultuous day job. Support Act’s second series of Tune Ups, is a high-impact, intimate and revealing video series on mental health.
Check out the full list of episodes here: https://supportact.org.au/tune-ups/
Sound Check is a web series begun by Support Act in mid-2020 in response to the crippling impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The series aimed to encourage positive mental health and wellbeing amongst the music industry, and features conversations with experts in mental, physical and social wellbeing, and a selection of artists, crew workers and music industry pros impacted by the industry shutdown.
Check out the full list of episodes here: https://supportact.org.au/resources/sound-check/
An equitable and inclusive music industry is one that provides access to all areas where music is created, performed and promoted, to all people, and ultimately makes us stronger.
The initial aaa (Access All Areas program) kicked off in 2018, and was a collaboration of the music industry, LGBTQIA+, community and women’s health stakeholders to advance opportunities for gender equity, diversity and safety in music industry settings in Melbourne’s north and west. It also explored how gendered violence and under-representation is shaped by structures such as colonisation, racism, ableism and more, to impact particular people in unique and compounding ways. Initiated and led by cohealth's prevention team, specifically Karen Ingram and Meredith Drinkell, the project included research, training and extensive resources for the music industry.
The above video starts to explore the issues and sheds light on why we need to keep working to address it. It touches on the gender and racial bias found in the music industry and aims to amplify the voices of people who are under-represented the most.
In 2021, due to a change in cohealth's strategic priorities, it was determined that the aaa initiative would be best served at a music industry organisation to enable sustained and impactful change. Music Victoria was identified as well-placed to carry Access All Areas into the future, and have agreed to continue to pursue its fundamental purpose - to make the music industry more equitable and inclusive.
In 2022, Music Victoria was delighted partner with Support Act to see a key component of the original program - the tailored music industry Bystander Intervention Training be further refined and developed to now be rolled out nationally for free to the music industry.
SIGN UP TO DO THE TRAINING HERE: https://supportact.org.au/events/access-all-areas/
To find out more about the work we are doing in this space towards cultural and structural change in music industry settings please get in touch with simone@musicvictoria.com.au.
The Arts Wellbeing Collective's resource hub contains numerous informative articles on multiple topics ranging including how to best eat, drink and sleep well on tour and also how to promote positive mental health and wellbeing while on tour. To view their extensive list of resources, click here.
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The Australian Alliance for Wellness in Entertainment (AAWE) is an Entertainment Assist cross-sector peer-to-peer initiative, for shared interest in positive mental health and wellbeing behaviours for a sustainable Australian entertainment industry. AAWE will implemented in collaboration with founding members:
Arts Wellbeing Collective
Ausdance National
Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare
Entertainment Assist
Live Performance Australia
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
Music Australia
Screen Producers Australia
The Australian Council of Deans & Directors of Creative Arts
along with peak bodies, sector representatives, employers, employees and freelancers within Australia’s live and recorded entertainment industry.
AAWE’s mental health partner is Everymind (formerly Hunter Institute for Mental Health).
The purpose of AAWE is to develop and action a Prevention First Framework for Mental Health in the Australian Entertainment Industry.
Find out more about AAWE here.