Fourth Monkey and Wellbeing in the Arts: Behind the curtain
Nicola Lisle
Friday, December 1, 2023
With mental health increasingly recognised as a major issue for students, acting school Fourth Monkey has formed a groundbreaking partnership with Wellbeing in the Arts to ensure students get the support they need. Nicola Lisle finds out more.
Saquer Serdula
Founded in 2010 to provide performance training at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, Fourth Monkey has become the first drama school to collaborate with Wellbeing in the Arts (WITA) to complement its holistic training approach with specialist mental health support.
Charleen Quaye, Fourth Monkey's director of training and deputy CEO, is delighted with the new partnership.
‘From the beginning of Fourth Monkey, we've always had a focus on wellbeing in general and as artists and creatives,’ she says. ‘There's a plethora of practitioners and specialists within Wellbeing in the Arts, and that's perfect for us because we never wanted to have one counsellor, or one specialist, in that welfare field. We knew if we could make something work it would be completely in alignment with our ethos and with the integrity of the school.’
Maeve Morgan, participation coordinator, believes the flexibility of the new partnership is another major advantage. ‘It's complementing the curriculum and the contact hours that the students have,’ she says. ‘Wellbeing in the Arts is really flexible with that, so if its arranging a one-to-one it will find spaces to do that. That's an element that really appeals to us, because it works for staff and students alike.’
Grown from experience
WITA was launched just two years ago as a not-for-profit organisation offering mental health and wellbeing counselling, training and workshops to individuals and organisations in the arts. Founder and CEO Adam Bambrough is a former theatre actor and director whose own mental health struggles eventually forced him out of the industry. Now he is keen to share his experiences to help others.
‘I struggled with my mental health for much of my life,’ he says. ‘I kept it all to myself and I'm aware of the damage that did, so when I present what support is available to a drama school or organisation I always talk about my own mental health journey. I think that gives people permission to talk about theirs and to seek support from somebody who's been there. It comes without judgement, which I think is key.’
A partnership
Although the Fourth Monkey and WITA partnership was launched earlier this year, the beginning of the academic year was the first opportunity to present the new welfare package to a new cohort of students. ‘We started really strongly in September, knowing we’d covered a lot of bases,’ says Quaye. ‘You're never going to cover everything because everyone's so different, but we've been able to make sure that when we rolled this out to these new students the whole system was robust, tried and tested.’
Crucially, everything is strictly confidential. Students and staff can approach WITA in complete confidence, and consultations take place off-site, fitted in around other training and work commitments. In the case of students, this is vital – not only for their right to privacy but also to the effectiveness of their training.
‘That's central to the whole relationship,’ Steven Green, the artistic director and CEO, emphasises. ‘It's all anonymous – we don't know who accesses the service, we just pay an invoice for the those who have. That's how it operates. If students feel you know everything that's going on in their private lives, that's going to impact their learning, or their training journey, or casting; they may have bias imposed upon them because of whatever it is they're experiencing. This way, we know nothing.’
Feedback and improvements
Students have access to a wide range of specialists at WITA, all of whom have trained and worked in the arts industry and can therefore empathise with student experiences from both an artistic and a wellbeing perspective. Staff at Fourth Monkey are monitoring the new partnership closely to ensure it is delivering everything the students and staff members need. ‘We meet with the WITA team regularly to evaluate the support and ensure it's as accessible, supportive and inclusive as possible,’ says Maeve. ‘This includes anonymous feedback from either party as to how we can best achieve this.’
‘Obviously the student voice is incredibly important,’ adds Steven. ‘That anonymous feedback can go back to Wellbeing in the Arts directly, or it can come through to Maeve, so students can say what they're experiencing and how they're benefitting from it. This has enabled us to modify it over time. I'm very proud that we provide this service and that we're enabling this work to happen, because on the NHS there are extremely long waiting lists and in the private sector the fees are incredibly expensive and inaccessible for students. This provision is really useful and important.’
