Voices of Hope’s mental health in music campaign has made a return for NZ Music Month. The project Music Holds Hope, which is now in its second year, aims to highlight significant mental health issues faced within the music industry and involves a series of interviews featuring local artists.

The new season of videos, made with the support of the NZ Music Commission, will include local talent Kings, Alayna, Ella Monnery and Diggy Dupé speaking candidly about the challenges they have faced with their mental health as well as how music helped them through their wellbeing journey.

A survey conducted by MusicHelps in 2018 found more than a third (35%) of musical creatives in New Zealand rated their mental and emotional well-being as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ and rates were worst among 18 to 24-year-olds with half rating their mental health as ‘fair’ or ‘poor’.

The same survey also found music workers are three times as likely than the general population to have thought seriously about taking their own lives, worryingly results had increased from the previous 2016 survey. Out of the 400 survey respondents 47% had considered suicidal ideation with 26% of respondents saying they had suicidal ideation in the past year, this was up from 18% in 2016.

“We hope that this campaign will highlight that even those who are living their dreams and pursuing their passions experience mental health struggles. Mental health does not discriminate. Stigma plays a large part in contributing to this. Having local artists talk openly about their experiences will hopefully help open up and encourage ongoing dialogue around the subject” says spokesperson Hazel Reid.

“There is always hope and as many of the artists featured in the campaign have pointed out, people shouldn’t feel alone in what they are going through as lots of other people have faced similar struggles. It's always good to reach out to a friend or support service for support or a chat, don’t hold on to burdening thoughts by yourself, but do always hold on to hope.”

“The more that mental health is seen as less of a taboo subject and spoken openly and responsibly about, the more we can move to break the lingering stigma and continue advocating for better mental health outcomes especially considering how dire our current mental health statistics are.”

Music Holds Hope will run throughout NZ Music Month in May and has been created in partnership with Voices of Hope and the NZ Music Commission.

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