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Addressing the Mental Health Strain in Communications

October 24, 2025 |  

As stress and burnout rise across UK communications, Fox&Cat’s Under the Tree sessions—now evolved into Minds on Matters—show how structured, skills-based support can reduce pressure and rebuild healthier working habits.

At Fox&Cat, mental wellbeing sits at the backbone of how we work.

After Covid, our industry was still showing signs of strain: inconsistent support mechanisms, rising levels of stress and a sense that many professionals were simply expected to “get back to normal”. In response, we launched Under the Tree, in collaboration with the HCA, PRCA and CIPR. The aim was simple: create sessions that provide practical, usable tools for individuals and teams to navigate pressure, connect more meaningfully and support healthy working practices.

In 2023 we delivered 13 sessions, and in 2024 a further 10. In total, nearly 6,000 people took part over the two years. Our content evolved with the industry – from exercises on “problem talk vs solution talk” and “listening that helps” to techniques around psychological safety, leadership and mindful response under pressure.

The positive feedback speaks volumes: one senior account director told us it “gave me language and tools to push back on overload without feeling like I was letting the team down.” A head of comms from a charity said: “The problem vs solution talk exercise changed how our weeklys run. Fewer spirals, more decisions.” A digital lead in pharma shared: “We used the psychological safety tips to reset our project rituals. Shared mistakes went up; rework went down.” And as we transition into our new phase, a managing partner at a medcomms agency observed: “Minds on Matters is sharper, rooted in current stressors, with examples you can lift and use tomorrow.”

The statistics underline why this work is so urgent. Latest UK data highlights that 91% of adults reported high or extreme stress in the past year, only 29% say they feel fulfilled at work and 21% continued working even when stress was harming their performance. Within PR specifically, 91% of respondents noted poor mental health in the last 12 months, with one-third reporting a diagnosed condition and workload cited as the top cause. In Great Britain across all sectors, 16.4 million working days were lost to stress, depression or anxiety in 2023/24, with the average affected person losing 21.1 days. These figures expose the cost—personal, team-wide and organisational—of neglecting mental wellbeing.

Throughout this journey, our partnerships with the HCA, PRCA and CIPR have been fundamental. They’ve helped us design the programme, promote it and ensure accreditation. The results showed, literally and figuratively: our initiative collected six industry awards and became a respected touch-point across healthcare and communications.

Now, Under the Tree has evolved into Minds on Matters, reflecting our sharpened focus on the real issues affecting people’s minds today: culture, leadership, boundaries, recognition and purpose. The next chapter is bold, practical and rooted in evidence-based approaches that we know work.

Because at Fox&Cat, looking after people isn’t a campaign. It’s how we work.

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This content was provided by Fox&Cat

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