First Aid for the Artist's Soul. Christina Barandun

      Over the last few decades, great leaps have been made in the areas of personnel and organisational development, attaching increasing importance to the issue of health and safety at work. These changes have certainly improved conditions for theatres with the challenges described above. Both in industry and in the social sector, escalating workloads and heightened expectations have caused an increased level of sick leave and flagging efficiency on the part of employees. Research fields such as health promotion and health management have brought forth new insights (e.g. stricter laws on occupational health and safety) and developed practical solutions which can be applied to theatrical organisations as well.

What is health?

      When we talk about health protection or health management, the question crops up: What actually is health?

Most of us perceive health as an absence of sickness. In its constitution of 1948, the World Health Organisation defined the term health more comprehensively: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”⁸

      The previous focus on purely physical aspects has been widened to include mental and social well-being. At the end of the First International Conference on Health Promotion held by the WHO in 1986, this expansion was fleshed out in the so-called Ottawa Charter. Seven basic conditions for health were defined:

      Stable self-esteem.

      A positive relationship with one’s own body.

      Fulfilling friendships and social relationships.

      A safe and healthy environment.

      Meaningful work, as well as healthy and safe working conditions.

      Knowledge about health and access to health care.

      A present time that is worth living in, and the hope of a future worth living.

      All these go far beyond physical well-being, and emphasise the significance of mental and social circumstances on an individual’s health.

The crucial change is the one in attitude: The focus is no longer on the prevention of disease, but on the maintenance of well-being.⁹

Work protection – to help and support you

      With this, all companies had a social mission.

      Enter: the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

      Anybody mentioning the Safety and Health Act and its provisions in front of artists at the theatre will quickly be rewarded with exasperated moaning or a rolling of the eyes. Here, the (unfortunately still) instinctive gap between art and technology is deepened. Specialists in health and safety mainly come from a technical background, where a focus on safety at work has its natural origins, necessitated by the prevention of physical accidents, such as falling scenery. These specialists are often seen by artists as ignorant philistines trying to put the kibosh on fabulous ideas with their restrictions and prohibitions.

      At all health and safety conferences I have attended, I was again and again impressed by the meticulousness and passion with which the technical personnel attended to safety and security on the stage, and behind the scenes. I met many dedicated people who were concerned with making possible what might seem technically impossible in order to guarantee health and safety. They are impressive artists in their own right who deserve the greatest appreciation for their work and who, like many of their artistic colleagues, are much-maligned for their efforts.

      The main concern of these health and safety specialists is the welfare of the artists on stage, so encouraging a stronger, closer collaboration between them and the artists offers a great opportunity to find new and “healthy” ways to improve the well-being of everyone involved. Working out how to achieve something safely onstage can actually lead to more creative artistic choices: think of the stuntman as he trains actors to safely execute an onstage stunt – he will, because of his daring nature, unwittingly inspire a more truthful performance from them.

When stresses and strains overburden our psyche

      A new dimension to health and safety at work was added in 2013. Since 2013, the German Occupational Safety and Health Act (ASG) contains the following provision: “Work must be designed such that any risk to life as well as to physical and mental health is avoided to the greatest possible degree and the remaining risk is kept as low as possible.” (Section 4, no. 1 ASG.)

      The reason for the addition of “mental health” lies in the dramatic rise in psychological illnesses over the past twenty years, due to increased workload and stress.

      I should underscore at this point that mental stress – everything impacting thoughts, emotions and behaviour – is not, as such, negative. Quite the contrary. Life would be boring without chills and thrills, for instance, before a stage performance. But if the state of being thrilled takes on such a magnitude that we are continuously hyped up, an exhilarating psychological challenge turns into overburdening mental strain.

      It’s important to note that the personally perceived stress level differs for each person. I respond to certain things with great excitement, while other people are not fazed by them at all, and vice versa. In addition, one stress factor alone might not be enough to cause significant distress. You can probably deal with uncomfortable chairs in the orchestra section, but if the noise level also rises and you experience conflicts with colleagues, these things combined become a mental strain.

      The consequences are severe, and the numbers are frightening. According to the 2016 report on absenteeism published by the AOK (German health insurer), the number of absent days due to mental illness has risen by 72 per cent since 2004. With an average of 25.6 days, the duration of absences caused by mental problems was twice as long as the average of all absences (11.6 days) in 2015. And according to the BKK (statutory health insurance in Germany) Health Report 2016, mental illness is the third most common cause of sick leave.

A great opportunity for artists

      In view of these dramatic developments, it is only logical that companies should be called upon to assume social responsibility. It would be preposterous that they profit from their employees, overwork them to the point of illness, and then send them back out into society as if they are now the responsibility of the taxpayer.

      By their very nature, the strain on artists is largely psychological (stage fright, for example). In the past, mental stress was not recorded in any formal way, and so there no effective impetus to develop measures to deal with it. Now there is a legal requirement that these intangible mental and social issues must be included in the so-called risk assessment, which has had to be prepared for every workplace for many years. All stresses that are adverse to health and well-being must be recorded and rectified by counter-measures, if necessary.

      With the foregrounding of occupational health and safety regulations with regard to psychological stress, a new opportunity has opened up for artists in the theatre business.

      Thanks to the extensive research in the field of work organisation and health management in the workplace, many tools are available today for dealing with our various psychological stresses. We just need to pick them up, try them out, and adapt them to or redevelop them for the purposes of art.

      Healthy passion

Mental Training for the High-Performance Sport of Art

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