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With very high levels of anxiety and depression in the sector, how many cultural organizations have mental health supports for their workers?

Exploring mental health statistics in arts, heritage, and entertainment organizations

Hill Strategies (Kelly Hill)

May 2, 2023

This week is Canadian Mental Health Week. According to statistics from the Canadian Mental Health Association, each year, 1 in 5 Canadians experience a mental health problem or illness.

The broader arts, entertainment, and information sector has long been a challenging workspace for mental health: this sector had the highest levels of diagnoses of anxiety and depression pre-COVID-19. Over one-quarter of workers in the sector were diagnosed with each condition – before COVID-19. (Source: Anxiety and Depression in the Workplace: Analysis by Sector, Mental Health Research Canada, 2021, Figures D1 and E1).

The same report indicates that anxiety and depression levels remained quite high in the arts, entertainment, and information since COVID-19 hit (but it wasn’t the highest sector).

Some research within the arts and culture has shown that the pandemic has led to high levels of stress and burnout (e.g., statistics from the 2020 National Arts and Culture Impact Survey). A report on the impacts of the pandemic on Indigenous artists heard from contributing artists that prioritizing their mental health is particularly important at this time. The report indicated that mental health and wellbeing could be enhanced through “spiritual support from elders, support groups for artists, platforms for voicing concerns, and access to free or subsidized counselling”.

Recently, an Imagine Canada article noted that not-for-profit organizations are much more likely than for-profit companies “to report having implemented or having plans to implement practices to support employee wellbeing and diversity”. In particular, supports for mental health and wellness are much more common in not-for-profit organizations (63% reported having such supports) than in for-profit companies (39%).

In today’s post, I find that 42% of organizations and businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment have workplace mental health supports, a proportion that is similar to the average for all industries. Similarly, 42% of these organizations and businesses have workplace supports for a related issue: work-life balance. Provincially, I find that there is no consistent pattern in the prevalence of supports for mental health or work-life balance in the arts, heritage, and entertainment – although Nova Scotia and Alberta rank highly on both.

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Proportion of organizations or businesses that have mental health supports

The first graph in today’s post shows that 42% of organizations or businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment have (or plan to have) some type of mental health support for their workers, a proportion that is essentially equal to the average for all industries (41%). Among Statistics Canada’s 16 industry sectors, the arts, heritage, and entertainment ranks in the middle of the pack (9th).

The survey did not define mental health supports but simply asked:

Which of the following practices does this business or organization currently have in place or plan to implement over the next 12 months?
Practices to support mental health and wellness.
(Three other types of practices could be selected, including “Practices to support work-life balance”, which I analyze below.)

The industry sector with the highest proportion of organizations or businesses with mental health supports is the information and cultural industries grouping (57%).

Other industry sectors with an above-average proportion of organizations or businesses with mental health supports include finance and insurance (50%) and health care and social assistance (also 50%).

Industry sectors with a roughly similar proportion as the arts, heritage, and entertainment include professional, scientific, and technical services (45%), mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (43%), accommodation and food services (39%), and retail trade (38%).

Bar graph of proportion of organizations and businesses that have mental health supports for their workers, select industry sectors, Canada, 2022. Real estate and rental and leasing: 23%. Transportation and warehousing: 32%. Retail trade: 38%. Accommodation and food services: 39%. All industries (average): 41%. Arts, entertainment and recreation: 42%. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction: 43%. Professional, scientific and technical services: 45%. Health care and social assistance: 50%. Finance and insurance: 50%. Information and cultural industries: 57%. Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0552-01. Practices businesses or organizations have in place or plans to implement over the next 12 months, third quarter of 2022.

“Arts, heritage, and entertainment” (which Statistics Canada refers to as “arts, entertainment, and recreation”) includes performing arts, spectator sports, and related industries (industry code 711); heritage institutions (code 712); amusement, gambling, and recreation industries (code 713).
The information and cultural industries group includes publishing industries (except internet) (code 511); motion picture and sound recording industries (code 512); broadcasting (except internet) (code 515); telecommunications (code 517); data processing, hosting, and related services (code 518); other information services (code 519).

Mental health supports vary between the provinces but with no consistent pattern

In recent posts, I have shown that multiple job holding in the arts and culture is most common in the smaller provinces and that the same is true about volunteering.

There is no consistent pattern in the prevalence of mental health supports in the arts, heritage, and entertainment between smaller and larger provinces.

As shown in the graph below, three provinces have particularly high proportions of organizations or businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment reporting mental health supports: Newfoundland and Labrador (54%), Nova Scotia (53%), and Alberta (also 53%). On the other hand, very few Quebec-based arts, heritage, and entertainment organizations offer mental health supports (30%).

Column graph of proportion of organizations and businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment that have mental health supports for their workers, Canada and the provinces, 2022. Canada: 42%. British Columbia: 48%. Alberta: 53%. Saskatchewan: 46%. Manitoba: 40%. Ontario: 43%. Quebec: 30%. New Brunswick: 40%. Nova Scotia: 53%. Prince Edward Island: 48%. Newfoundland and Labrador: 54%. Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0552-01. Practices businesses or organizations have in place or plans to implement over the next 12 months, third quarter of 2022.

Data quality indicators: Canada: very good (B). 8 provinces: good (C). PEI and NB: acceptable(D).

Proportion of organizations or businesses that offer supports for work-life balance

Interestingly, the same proportion of organizations or businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment have (or plan to have) support for the work-life balance of their workers as have mental health supports (42% for each). We have no way of knowing from the available data whether it’s the same organizations and businesses that have supports for both, but it does seem likely that there would be significant crossover between the two statistics.

Regarding work-life balance, the proportion in the arts, heritage, and entertainment (42%) is similar to the percentage for all industries (44%). Among Statistics Canada’s 16 industry sectors, the arts, heritage, and entertainment ranks fairly low (11th). The following graph provides details for 10 of these industry sectors.

Statistics Canada’s survey did not define support for work-life balance but simply asked whether organizations and businesses currently have in place or plan to implement practices to support work-life balance.

As is the case with mental health supports, the industry sector with the highest proportion of organizations or businesses offering support for work-life balance is the information and cultural industries grouping (62%).

Other industry sectors with an above-average proportion of organizations or businesses offering support for work-life balance include finance and insurance (54%), professional, scientific, and technical services (50%), and health care and social assistance (also 50%).

Industry sectors with a similar proportion to the arts, heritage, and entertainment include accommodation and food services (44%) and retail trade (42%).

Bar graph of proportion of organizations and businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment that offer support for the work-life balance of their workers, select industry sectors, Canada, 2022. Real estate and rental and leasing: 29%. Transportation and warehousing: 34%. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction: 37%. Arts, entertainment and recreation: 42%. Retail trade: 42%. Accommodation and food services: 44%. All industries (average): 44%. Health care and social assistance: 50%. Professional, scientific and technical services: 50%. Finance and insurance: 54%. Information and cultural industries: 62%. Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0552-01. Practices businesses or organizations have in place or plans to implement over the next 12 months, third quarter of 2022.

Supports for work-life balance vary between the provinces but have no consistent pattern

There is no consistent pattern in the prevalence of support for work-life balance in the arts, heritage, and entertainment between smaller and larger provinces.

The following graph shows that two provinces have a particularly high proportion of organizations or businesses in the arts, heritage, and entertainment reporting some type of support for work-life balance: Nova Scotia (53%) and Alberta (51%). As shown above, these two provinces also have above-average proportions of organizations reporting mental health supports. Relatively few arts, heritage, and entertainment organizations in Prince Edward Island (32%), New Brunswick (also 32%), Manitoba (36%), and Ontario (37%) offer supports for work-life balance.

Data quality indicators: Canada: very good (B). All 10 provinces: good (C).

Link to the data source

Source: Statistics Canada. Table 33-10-0552-01 Practices businesses or organizations have in place or plans to implement over the next 12 months, third quarter of 2022, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3310055201.