A compelling new study released by PRCA MENA has laid bare a profound mental health challenge gripping the public relations and communications sector across the Middle East and North Africa.Launched at the annual PRCA MENA Conference in Dubai, the MENA Mental Health Report reveals that 55% of industry professionals experience stress, anxiety, or feelings of being overwhelmed either often or all the time, while 41% frequently suffer from burnout.The Awareness-Support DisconnectWhile the industry has made notable strides in destigmatizing mental health discourse, practical workplace backing appears to be lagging. According to the research, 76% of respondents now consider themselves well-informed about mental health—up from 66% in 2024.However, over that same period, the proportion of professionals who feel moderately or completely supported by their organizations has experienced a sharp decline, dropping from 71% down to 58%.The relentless nature of modern communications is a primary driver of the strain. An overwhelming 93% of professionals admitted to finding it difficult to disconnect from news and current events due to their job requirements, with 63% pointing to recent global and regional developments as a catalyst for heightened industry stress.A Call for Structural TransformationConrad Egbert, Head of PRCA MENA, emphasized that the regional sector has moved past simple awareness deficits into an era demanding structural accountability."We’ve become much better at talking about mental health, but we haven’t been as good at changing the conditions affecting it. The industry doesn’t have an awareness problem anymore; it has an action problem," Egbert stated. "If people understand burnout but still feel unable to switch off, manage their workload or take time to recover, then another wellbeing campaign isn’t the answer. This now comes down to how we lead, how we manage people and, fundamentally, how we design work."In terms of actionable solutions, survey respondents voiced clear demands for institutional reform:• 46% prioritize improvements to the physical and psychological working environment.• 41% call for rigorous workload management to curb burnout.• 37% advocate for direct access to professional mental health resources.John Rynehart, Chair of the PRCA MENA Mental Health Committee and Managing Director for the Middle East at Kekst CNC, echoed these sentiments, stressing that leadership must prioritize systemic overhaul over coping mechanisms."We know what drives stress, burnout and poor wellbeing," Rynehart noted. "The challenge now is whether organisations are willing to make the changes required to address them. Our collective goal should not simply be to help people cope with unhealthy ways of working. It should be to create healthier ways of working in the first place."Highlights from the Dubai SummitThe report debuted during the PRCA MENA Conference + Next Gen Summit, which convened roughly 150 communications leaders, journalists, and rising practitioners under the guiding theme “Reset the Mindset.”Opening the conference, Taif Al Amiri—Director of the Government Communication Department at the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and a PRCA MENA advisory board member—argued that modern communications must evolve beyond traditional metric tracking like reach and volume."Rewriting the narrative must begin with understanding the audience," Al Amiri remarked. "A narrative does not change simply because we communicate more. It changes when we communicate differently, when we understand what people care about, what they do not yet understand, and what will make the story meaningful to them."Throughout the day-long event, panels tackled complex industry transformations, exploring shifting centers of influence, corporate reputation, agency profitability, creative risk, and the profound implications of artificial intelligence on trust and leadership.
