Four industry bodies team up on MENA mental health platform

Four marketing and communications bodies will build a mental health platform for the MENA sector, after a PRCA MENA study found 56 per cent of respondents frequently experience stress, anxiety or feeling overwhelmed.

The Marketing Society, PRCA MENA, the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) and UAE-based mental health platform mentl signed on to the initiative. Publicis Groupe Middle East will act as creative partner. The partners plan to shift the region's mental health conversation beyond awareness campaigns and toward practical action.

The numbers behind the initiative come from the PRCA MENA Mental Health Report 2026. That survey found 41 per cent of respondents report experiencing burnout frequently. The project will also draw on the Middle East Mental Health Charter, published last year, which sets out workplace mental health standards for the industry.

What does the platform actually involve?

Publicis Groupe Middle East will lead creative development. That brief covers the initiative's brand identity and its communications strategy. The process will run on three inputs:

• industry workshops
• stakeholder interviews
• benchmarking against internationally recognised mental health campaigns

The creative development process is already underway. The partners have not yet published timelines, workshop dates or participation details. Those are expected to be announced later.

What do the leaders claim?

Conrad Egbert, head of PRCA MENA, said the report and the charter highlighted the need to treat mental health as a professional and human priority. He added that the initiative would reflect the experiences of people working across the industry and aim to create lasting change.

Justin Kerr-Stevens, chair of MEPRA, said the sector needed to move from discussing mental health to taking practical steps that address workplace pressures. He said industry bodies carried a responsibility to work together toward healthier and more sustainable working environments.

Bassel Kakish, chief executive officer of Publicis Groupe Middle East and Turkey, said the industry should apply its experience in communicating mental health and wellbeing issues to its own workforce. "Talent should be our biggest priority, and investing in people means investing in their well-being too," he said.

No budget figure, launch date or headcount target has been disclosed. The platform's name has not been announced either. Practitioners will judge the effort on delivery, not on the press release.

What does this change for practitioners?

For now, little changes on the ground. The concrete near-term opportunities are the workshops and the chance to feed stakeholder interviews. Comms and marketing staff in the region who want input should watch for the participation details the partners have promised.

The partnership arrives amid wider industry discussion on talent retention and working conditions across the marketing and communications sector. The 56 per cent stress figure and the 41 per cent burnout figure give that debate a regional evidence base for the first time in a structured, multi-body format.

Whether the platform turns into measurable workplace change or another awareness campaign will depend on how the charter's standards get enforced once the creative work ships.