Help Musicians launches campaign for artist-focused mental health service

Help Musicians — the largest provider of health and welfare support for the British music industry — has today announced Music Minds Matter, a new campaign for music industry-wide support of the world's first dedicated 24/7 mental health service for people working in music.

Help Musicians hopes to raise enough money to launch the innovative new service in late 2017.

The stigma around mental health in the music industry is slowly beginning to lift thanks to brave artists like Stormzy, Nicky Romero and Ben Pearce openly talking about their struggles with mental health in recent months.

Help Musicians has identified a "mental health crisis" in the music industry, which has led the charity to create the Music Minds Matter campaign, with an initial investment of £100,000 to get the ball rolling.

Speaking about the new campaign, Help Musician's CEO Richard Robinson, said: “For generations and generations, the music industry has lost some of its brightest talent and future stars due to the scourge of mental health and related issues.

"We have decided to make this landmark investment as a precursor to a dedicated service – but we cannot undertake this work in isolation. We need the music industry to step up, arm in arm with Help Musicians, and match our support pound for pound, so we are proud to launch the MUSIC MINDS MATTER campaign."

Today's announcement comes just a week after the untimely death of Linkin Park lead singer Chesher Bennington, who took his own life after suffering from mental health problems.

The new campaign, which launches today, has already gained widespread support from a host of artists including Nicole Moudaber.

"Mental health is a very real issue within the music industry and we need to tackle it head on," said Moudaber.

"Artists, DJs & producers, managers, tour managers and other industry employees dealing with artists on a daily basis, need help and support to know how to handle such issues. I am proud to support Music Minds Matter, so that an effective network of support is launched and delivered."

For more information and to donate to the campaign, head here.