Calls to industry mental health charity Nabs surged 18% in 2024 to reach a record 5,200 calls.
According to the latest figures from Nabs, emotional support — including calls relating to anxiety, burnout and stress — topped the list of reasons for contacting the organisation, with 22% more people calling for such help in 2024 than in 2023.
A Nabs spokesperson said many of those calling for emotional support “reported feeling overwhelmed, unsupported or pushed to the brink of resigning or taking sick leave”.
The second-most-common reason for calling Nabs was for redundancy-related support. In 2024, 39% more people contacted Nabs for such help than the year before and downloads of Nabs’ online redundancy guide increased 15% amid a rise in concerns over job security.
“People are experiencing extraordinary levels of uncertainty and change,” commented Nabs CEO Sue Todd. “Our industry wants to know how we can survive at this pace while still having a positive experience at work.”
Calls to Nabs have grown by 20% since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic changed the status quo of working practices. Moreover, total engagement with Nabs has doubled since 2019; 7,000 individuals used Nabs services in 2019 compared with 14,000 in 2024.
Todd continued: “Now, more than ever, we all have to dig in to develop and support adland to ensure that everybody who needs help can find a way forward. We thank everyone who donates to or raises money for Nabs, ensuring that we can help every single person who reaches out to us.”
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Apart from greater mental health concerns, it is possible that improved awareness of Nabs’ services in the industry has resulted in greater demand.
Nabs has expanded the services it provides in recent years and its workshops are “more popular than ever”, according to a spokesperson. Such workshops saw a 42% rise year on year in the number of users.
In 2024, the charity launched the Managers’ Mindsets training and support programme, which provides sessions on management topics, on top of its existing series of core workshops.
In a November episode of The Media Leader Podcast, Todd explained how the new initiative was designed to help particularly middle managers — who are increasingly skewing younger and often suffer from a chronic lack of time and resource — develop the tools necessary to support their teams’ mental health.
Since January, Nabs’ training materials are also accessible via the Advertising Association’s Advertising & Marketing Training Hub, found within Adwanted Connected. Adwanted UK is parent company of The Media Leader.
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