I have always said that the most important letter in APG is the G. Group community. Finding ways to enrich and support the community is one of if not the founding principle of the APG.

 

We continually spend time thinking how we can further the knowledge and learning of our discipline. To advance our collective expertise and make better work.  But earlier this year as a committee we agreed we needed to do more to represent and support the community of planners from a mental health perspective. Because there was seemingly not issues more pressing or pertinent in our community for the sustainability of people

 

Planners are a particular breed of person who are curious, empathetic, strong, sensitive, creative; those who take responsibility and often carry a huge amount of expectation and upon our shoulders.

 

And whether we as a community and as people are more predisposed to mental health related illness or whether are working lives and pursuits place more pressures upon us, what is in no doubt is that we have to recognise the issue and do all we can to address it.

 

We are not experts in this field. We don’t profess to be and have worked with expert organisations to guide us and support us on this journey. We recognise the complexity and broad ranging spectrum of Mental Health from the clinical, to the everyday wellbeing stresses.

 

But what we wanted to do was to start a conversation. And so we did in February upstairs in the The Crown, at our first session to discuss the prevalence of mental health issues in our community and with candid and open conversations.

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The response we had was quite extraordinary from people at all levels and it compelled the APG team to do more.

 

So we rallied the strategic leaders from around London and indeed the country to look the issue in the face and discuss what we were going to do to tackle it. 40 CSOs and Heads of Planning arrived and we shared stories, initiatives, concerns but overall a shared ambition to tackle it and a need for a concrete plan to make it happen.

 

Since then we have trained over 20 CSOs at a Mental Health Leadership event. We have also paid for a similar number of nominated strategy leaders to take part in Mental Health First Aid fully funded by the APG and will continue to offer this.

 

But one other key element we wanted to take on is the conditions and working culture that can exacerbate and trigger mental health issues amongst our community. The 24/7 limitless demands that are now normal but are anything but.

 

We are calling it The Right to Disconnect: A call to arms to disconnect from the continuous work culture in order to reconnect with yourself, your friends, family and ultimately your creativity. We are championing four very simple but powerful behaviours.

 

We are asking Strategy leaders and agencies across London to commit to tackling them and for you as a community of strategists to demand them.

 

We talk relentlessly about creating cultural impact through the work we make. But surely we should start by making a cultural impact on the people we work with.