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R U OK? carries out survey of Australian workplace relationships

Gavin larkin

Gavin Larkin

R U OK?, the Australian charity created to help combat suicide, is conducting the Australian Workplace Relationships Survey, one of the most comprehensive pieces of research into how people feel and interact at work.

The results of the survey will be published on August 14, a month before the fourth annual R U OK?Day on 13 September 2012.

Gavin Larkin was CEO at STW’s The Brand Shop when he created the initiative. Larkin died last year and was awarded GQ magazine’s man of inspiration posthumously.

Jo Cooper, program director at R U OK? told Mumbrella: “It’s not intended to be a beat-up of any one industry, but to see what the key positives are and benchmark to see if media and communications are having an impact on organisations promoting mental wellbeing practices.”

The media and marketing industry will be one of those surveyed.

The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete. The results will be anonymous, but will help to understand key Australian trends in order to better shape future communications from the organisation.

Last year R U OK? Day achieved awareness levels of 58% and one in five people took part. The objective for 2012 is to increase participation in the day.

Joe Talcott wrote an opinion piece on Mumbrella about the need for the communications industry to get behind the initiative, saying: “We all move at an incredible pace, working hard in a broad area called “communications”. We devote endless hours to understanding how people think and behave. Yet we can be oblivious to those people around us. Working side-by-side and yet unaware of how they are handling the pressures, criticisms, fatigue and stress that is common in our line of work…As Gavin explained to me…research shows that talking about suicide with someone at risk actually reduces the chance of them taking their own life.”

Complete the survey here. 

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