Facing the Mental Health Crisis in PR Head-On
Two out of every three people working in communications have experienced extreme stress or burnout in the past year.
That's not a statistic pulled from thin air. It's the stark reality captured in the latest State of Us report on mental health in the PR and communications industry.
Having worked agency-side for years, I know how easily stress becomes "part of the job." But the findings from this report show that our industry can no longer afford to shrug and move on.
It’s time to face this head-on.
A Profession Under Strain
The report makes it painfully clear: job insecurity, economic uncertainty, and the relentless pace of work have left deep scars.
64% of comms professionals reported severe stress or burnout in the last 12 months.
47% said new technologies like AI have increased their stress.
60% believe mental health is a bigger problem in our industry today than it was two years ago.
This is not just about working harder. It’s about working under a cloud of fear; fear of layoffs, fear of falling behind, fear of not belonging.
For those from minority backgrounds, the strain is even heavier. As Sheeraz Gulshar,
Co-Founder of People Like Us, put it: "The attack on equity, diversity and inclusion policies doesn't just affect headlines; it affects human beings."
The external pressures of global uncertainty have also amplified feelings of helplessness across the industry. Maja Pawinska Sims, Global Head of Features and EMEA News at PRovoke Media, noted, "Our collective mental health and wellbeing is always to some extent a reflection of what’s going on externally. The sense that we can’t predict or plan is at an all-time high for the industry."
While technology brings innovation, it also introduces new anxieties. Farzana Baduel, President-elect of CIPR and CEO of Curzon, explained: "We’re an industry that’s going to be most impacted, particularly content creation. ou had the early adopters who saw AI as helpfiul, but also a lot ofi anxious people who didn’t want to engage with it out ofi fiear."
Beyond the external pressures and technology shifts, our ways of working have fundamentally changed. Jo Carr, Co-Founder of Hope&Glory and current President of Women in PR, described it bluntly: "As an industry, we can be too available. Even in meetings, there is now this sense that we should be on Slack or replying to WhatsApps in real time."
All these forces compound to create an environment where mental health issues are not the exception; they are becoming the norm.
Signs of Progress, But a Long Way to Go
The State ofi Us study shows that more companies have put formal mental health policies in place. More employees now feel comfortable speaking up about their struggles. Support programmes are more widely available than two years ago.
Yet over half of respondents said there’s still a big gap between what companies say and what they actually do.
Many organisations talk a good game about wellbeing. But behind closed doors, people are still working unsustainable hours, facing unrealistic demands, and battling cultures that prize output over humanity.
As one interviewee bluntly put it: "Everyone had a great mental health story, but you know people who work there and they're working late every night."
Words alone won't fix this.
What Needs to Happen Now
Here are five lessons the PR industry must take seriously, whether you’re agency side or in-house:
Build psychologically safe workplaces: People need to know they can speak up without fear. This starts with leadership. Managers must lead by example, not just with words, but with actions.
Address workload, not just wellness: No yoga class or meditation app can fix a 60-hour week. Employers must rethink expectations, resource teams properly, and stop glorifying burnout.
Extend support to underrepresented groups: Mental health support can't be one-size-fits-all. Companies must tailor resources to reflect different lived experiences and invest in building truly inclusive cultures.
Strengthen the agency-client relationship: Scope creep, bullying, and unrealistic demands from clients were cited as major sources of stress. Agencies and clients must treat each other as true partners, not punching bags.
Train your managers properly: Middle managers need real training to spot early signs of burnout and support their teams. It’s not enough to "just be available." Practical skills matter.
Reading through the report, one thing struck me deeply. We often speak about resilience in PR as if it's an endless resource. As if we can always push harder, stay later, hustle faster. But resilience without support eventually turns into silence. And silence, in this context, is dangerous.
We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation of PR professionals to build something better.
Mental health in PR is no longer a "nice-to-have" conversation. It's a necessary, urgent priority. The question is; will we just talk about it, or will we finally do something about it?