Music Support expands its services with new NHS-backed care model

Music Support, the UK's pioneering mental health and addiction charity for the music industry, has expanded its life-saving services with a groundbreaking new stepped care model, backed by NHS principles.

The model offers four distinct levels of support, from low-level preventative care through to support for individuals with more complex needs.

Crucially, and unique to Music Support, services are delivered by in-house psychotherapists and highly skilled support staff with over 30 years combined experience of working in the music industry.

The four levels of complementary support in Music Support’s new model are structured according to need, as follows:

• Preventative & Early Intervention: Weekly support sessions and brief interventions for individuals facing low-level or emerging challenges

• Mild to Moderate Presentations: One-to-one counselling provided by volunteer counsellors who either have direct experience in the music industry or have received specialist training to understand the distinctive demands of the sector. All are registered with the BACP and/or UKCP

• Moderate to Severe Needs: Counselling delivered by Music Support’s in-house team of fully qualified BACP-registered therapists, each with a background in music. Their insight into the realities of the profession allows for a highly informed and empathetic approach

• Severe to Complex Needs: Tailored referrals to trusted specialist clinicians, detox units, and residential treatment centres, who have first-hand knowledge of the music and live entertainment world. This ensures care is both clinically robust and grounded in a deep understanding of the sector’s specific challenges

The increasing demand for Music Support’s services have been a catalyst for this new approach. Statistics from the charity’s 2024 festival season wellbeing survey underscore an urgent need.

26% acknowledged having drug and/or alcohol problems (up from 19% in 2023), 76% reported feeling “down or depressed” (up from 75%), 69% said they suffered from “low self-confidence” (up from 63%) and 21% experienced suicidal thoughts within the previous 12 months (up from 18%).

Matt Thomas, co-founder and chair of trustees at Music Support, and a former label executive and artist manager, said: “This elevated level of clinical-grade service provision is something we could only have dreamed of when it was just a few of us answering our mobiles at night. This is true testament to Joe Hastings and [Music Support’s head of support services] Georgina Levers-Angell’s vision, with special thanks to all our funders and supporters who've made this possible.”