Never Not Creative’s Mentally Healthy 2026 Survey Open
Have your say and help shape a mentally healthier creative industry
Never Not Creative’s new Mentally Healthy survey is now open, inviting people across the creative industry to share their experiences, challenges and ideas for change.
Your contribution will help build a clearer picture of what creative workers are facing today -particularly in local communities like Perth - and where meaningful support is needed.
Whether you work in design, production, photography, writing, strategy, development, education, agency leadership, or client side - your perspective matters.
Take a few minutes to complete the survey to help improve mental health outcomes of the industry by sharing your experience.
Contribute to the data on how we got here, and what needs to change
Pressure does not always arrive as obvious harm.
It can look like:
A “quick favour” that becomes unpaid labour
A pitch process that demands weeks of work with little chance of return
A client deadline that ignores the time needed for thinking
A senior person normalising exhaustion as proof of commitment
A freelancer absorbing stress because they cannot risk losing the next job
A junior creative staying silent because they do not want to seem difficult
None of these are rare.
Many are so common that they get mistaken for the cost of doing meaningful work.
The strength of Never Not Creative’s Mentally Healthy work has been its focus on industry-specific conditions.
Creative workers face the same life pressures as everyone else, but they also work inside systems that reward personal investment, emotional labour, unstable hours, subjective judgement, and a high tolerance for ambiguity.
General wellbeing advice can help, but it often misses the shape of the problem.
Perth has a role to play
Perth’s creative sector has always had to build things with a different kind of resourcefulness. Distance from the larger agency markets can be a challenge, but it also creates a more connected local scene. People cross paths often.
A designer may move between an arts organisation, an independent studio, a government project, and a mining-adjacent campaign within a few years.
A photographer may shoot for editorial, hospitality, tourism, and community groups in the same month.
That closeness can be powerful - it means good ideas spread quickly, it also means poor behaviour can become normalised when unchallenged.
Research is only useful if the industry acts on it
The Never Not Creative Mentally Healthy research program has helped give the creative industry a shared language for these issues.
Its value is not only in documenting that problems exist, but in creating evidence that can be used to push for structural change.
Research helps shift the conversation from individual coping to industry responsibility.
It gives employers reason to review systems. It gives associations and publishers a basis for better standards. It gives educators a way to prepare students for sustainable practice, not only creative excellence. It gives clients a clearer view of how their behaviour affects the people they hire.
Client side cannot sit outside the conversation
Creative businesses can improve their internal culture, but clients shape much of the pressure. A studio can set healthy standards, then watch them collapse under a late approval, an expanded scope, or a demand for weekend delivery.
This is why mentally healthy industry change must include clients.
A client doesn't need to understand every detail of the creative process, but they do need to understand how their actions affect people.
Delayed or unclear feedback compresses timelines.
Unclear approval chains create rework.
Last-minute stakeholder input can undo weeks of planning.
Payment delays place stress on suppliers, especially freelancers.
If clients want strong creative partners, they need to help build the conditions that keep creative people well.
The work ahead is cultural, not cosmetic
A mentally healthy creative industry will not come from a single campaign. It will come from thousands of decisions that make work clearer, fairer, and more human.
It will come from:
Leaders who don't view burnout as proof of passion.
Clients who respect the labour behind ideas.
Educators who teach boundaries alongside craft.
Publishers who keep the issue visible after the initial announcement.
And from advocates who turn research into practice by leading by example.
Add your voice by completing the 2026 survey.
