Not enough attention is being paid to the mental health of researchers.
For this reason, a few researchers, researcher groups, organizations and non-profits are working hard to raise their concerns.

In this episode of Stepsero we are joined by Clarinda Cerejo and Andrea Hayward, who are two professionals behind a recent survey involving 13,000 researchers from across the globe.
The report that followed, published by Cactus Communications with the support of several other partners, provides a comprehensive picture about the good and the bad side of researchers’ activities, and suggestions for positive changes in academic culture that can be implemented across institutions all over the world.

Below are some key takeaways from the CACTUS Mental Health Survey Report 2020:

• Close to 40% of the respondents stated that they had felt overwhelmed by their work situation fairly or very often in the previous month.
• Over 30% of the respondents stated that they typically work more than 50 hours a week. 
• 37% of the respondents stated that they had experienced (or were experiencing) some form of bullying, discrimination and harassment within their organization. 

Despite the prevalence of mental health difficulties in academia, many researchers find it difficult to seek support or ask for help. In many ways this could be due to the lack of safe and confidential spaces within universities and research institutions where researchers can access support. In line with this, almost half of the survey respondents said they would not discuss work-based feelings of severe stress or anxiety with relevant people/authorities in their workplace.
Some of the key reasons holding them back from an open discussion about these feelings were; a sense that others would be unable to help, fear of not being taken seriously, and a sense that these feelings were part of normal academic life. 

Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have brought on additional stress and concerns for researchers as they simultaneously take on changes brought on by a global crisis.
In a tweet by PhD Diaries (a popular academic Twitter profile), she explained what academia has been like in a post-COVID world – “…since you can’t leave your house, I expect all of you to: write 12 papers, teach 8 classes, learn R, review 16 grants… Oh and, don’t forget to ‘take care of yourself’ during this pandemic, whatever that means.”