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Study Highlight: PRCA MENA Mental Health Report 2025

Study Highlight: PRCA MENA Mental Health Report 2025

PRCA MENA Mental Health Committee has released its Mental Health Report 2025, developed in partnership with YouGov, offering a data-led assessment of mental wellbeing across the region’s PR and communications industry.
The study was based on responses from 565 professionals across 19 MENA markets, taken between 16th July and 21st August 2025.

The report found that the majority of respondents (97 per cent) consider mental health important, and 96 per cent view it as essential to quality of life.

Workplace pressures remain a significant concern, the report said. Long hours, high workloads and poor work-life balance continue to be the most cited stressors, with 85 per cent of professionals saying their workplace directly affects their mental wellbeing. Despite this, only 30 per cent feel fully supported by their employer, while more than one in five say their organisation does not communicate about mental health at all.

The report flags ongoing gaps organisations need to close:

  • A disconnect between awareness and action: Most respondents recognise the need for professional help in a mental health crisis, but only 42 per cent seek it, with many relying instead on themselves, friends, or family.
  • Inconsistent organisational communication: 22 per cent say their workplace never communicates about mental health, and only 20 per cent hear from senior leaders - pointing to low leadership visibility.
  • Uneven implementation of support initiatives: Some employers offer flexible work (26 per cent), wellness programmes (32 per cent), or mental health insurance (27 per cent), yet 18 per cent provide no mental health support at all.

The report also highlighted the growing use of digital and AI-enabled wellbeing tools, while stressing that these should complement - not replace - human support, leadership engagement and access to professional care.

John Rynehart, Chair of the PRCA MENA Mental Health Committee, said, “Awareness is growing, but anxiety, stress and exhaustion remain widespread across the industry. This report is a clear call for organisations to embed mental wellbeing into everyday practice, not treat it as a side initiative.”

Conrad Egbert, Head of PRCA MENA, said, “The industry has made progress in recognising the importance of mental health, but this report shows a clear gap between awareness and action. The challenge now is not starting conversations, but building workplaces where support is consistent, visible and trusted.”

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Between them, the two companies now cover the five parts of media intelligence. Truescope brings media monitoring, social listening and media analysis. Telum Media brings the media database and distribution. For communications teams, that means one connected workflow, from finding the right journalist to measuring what the coverage achieved.

The partnership will initially focus on Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, with additional markets to follow.

For Telum Media, the partnership reflects a sharp surge in journalists demanding greater relevance in the outreach they receive from PRs, and follows its recent launch of Distribution tools within the platform.

“The ‘spray and pray’ approach to sending media releases should be consigned to the past – that’s what thousands of journalists have been telling us through our Journalist Interest Surveys,” said Telum Media Executive Chairman, Michael Webster.

“The focus is on precision-led targeting and more relevant outreach, and this partnership with Truescope will help communications teams identify and select relevant media based on demonstrated coverage and current editorial interests."

“Having this integrated into the Telum Media platform means teams can research, plan, personalise and pitch without switching between disconnected systems.”

For Truescope, the partnership follows its entry into the Australian market on 1 October 2026, and conversations with more than 30 communications, PR and public affairs leaders across Australian government, corporate and agency teams about what they need from a media intelligence service. Truescope monitors broadcast, print, digital and social media, and runs Truescope AI as part of the service: Truescope Assistant, which answers questions about what happened in the coverage, and Truescope Analyst, which explains what it means, with citations on every output.

Truescope CEO, John Croll, said the integration puts coverage data and journalist data in the same place. Truescope and Telum Media solve complementary parts of the PR workflow, and clients increasingly want monitoring and journalist intelligence to work together without compromising quality.

“PR and Comms teams want the best monitoring and the best journalist data. Until now that has meant two systems and a lot of copying between them.”

“With this partnership, a comms manager can access specialist capabilities, data quality, and innovation of both Truescope and Telum Media. They can see who is covering their issue, understand how that coverage is moving, and pitch the right journalist without leaving the workflow. That is time back, and a better hit rate”, John said.

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