Services for the Media industry

TV and film production companies / broadcasters

Does your team make content about distressing or sensitive topics and / or work with vulnerable contributors and participants? If so, there will be risk of psychological harm to all those involved including the production team, crew and contributors. You’re probably aware of some of these risks, but do you have a systematic approach to identifying and managing them throughout the production process and beyond to ensure people stay safe and well?  

We provide specialist services to the TV and film industry to help you to identify and manage psychological risks and ensure you’re taking a structured and thorough approach. Services include:

• Advice to production teams in the project development stages through to post-transmission to help manage psychological risks and protect mental wellbeing, e.g. when working with vulnerable contributors or sensitive content. This includes a ‘retainer’ service, a package of advice and support or ad hoc assistance when queries arise,
• Support with programme / project risk assessments where there are psychological risks.
• Advice on the development of mental health related protocols and policies for staff and contributors (e.g. an overarching duty of care policy, a specific protocol for mental health emergencies)
• Training for production teams on working with vulnerable contributors to ensure the contributors’ wellbeing is protected and that the production team maintain their own mental wellbeing.
• Training on engaging with distressing / sensitive content (imagery, audio, written transcripts) to minimise the negative psychological impact and protect wellbeing.
• General mental health, wellbeing and resilience training for production staff and management

Social media companies / teams

We can also provide specialist advice, guidance and training to social media teams who want to manage the psychological risks involved when employees engage with potentially harmful content in the course of their work. Whether that’s production teams, content moderators or quality assurance staff, we can offer advice, training and bespoke packages to meet your needs.

Relevant expertise

Dr Susannah Robertson-Hart led the mental health strategy for the BBC for seven years focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of BBC staff and freelancers. This included working with production teams to understand and manage risks to mental health. She also developed industry-leading guidance and training on psychological risk assessment and protecting the mental wellbeing of programme contributors and participants.  

Susannah now works with independent TV and film production companies and social media companies / teams providing specialist consultancy, advice and training related to psychological risk, mental health and wellbeing.