Take Care: Participate in the Mental Health Survey!

FEDEC, in collaboration with the Codarts Research Department, is launching a survey on students mental health in professional circus schools, as part of the Take Care project. Your voice matters — participate now and help shape better support systems for circus students’ well-being!

This survey is based on the Performing Artist Health Monitor (PAHM), developed by Codarts — an award-winning digital tool that supports performing arts students in monitoring and improving their mental health, well-being, and their mental and physical capacities through regular questionnaires, personalized recommendations, and the anonymous sharing of data.

By participating in this survey, circus students will provide valuable insights that will help improve the PAHM tool and advance research aimed at strengthening the well-being and performance of performing artists.

Who?

👉 We will not be making any selections: all FEDEC schools (preparatory & higher education) wishing to take part are welcome. They can involve a few students (please note that participating students must be over 18) to take part in the monthly questionnaire or the whole school.

👉 It is important that the involved students answer every month, that is why, in each school participating, one person is responsible for making sure this is done. The objective being to guarantee continuity in data collection and to be able to understand the evolution of mental health over the course of the year.

When?

The self-monitoring questionnaire will be implemented from September 2025 to June 2026 (to be defined more precisely with each participating school according to their own calendar). A meeting will be organised beforehand with the schools to discuss the implementation of the survey.

Why?

👉 For the schools:

• to better understand students’ realities and foster their well-being,
• to improve students yearly schedule based on data,
• to avoid mental health issues and raise learning efficiency,
• to be more attractive to future students by making mental health a priority.

👉 For the circus sector:

• to raise awareness and provide tangible data on mental health issues and their evolution in professional circus education,
• to collect figures,
• to recognize the specific needs and barriers of circus students/artists,
• to develop new tools, especially preventive ones.

👉 For FEDEC (as a network):

• to create synergies between members and support them in their difficulties,
• to move the sector towards better management of these issues,
• to better defend the sector's interests at European political level.

More info

To find out more about the PAHM and the survey, download the Call for Participation for more information on:

• the context,
• the modalities to participate to the survey,
• the Codarts research department & experts,
• the questionnaire frame,
• etc.

Register

👉 To participate, please register here before June 24, 2025.

Any questions? 

👉 For any question, please contact Sarah at takecare@fedec.eu.

Take Care is a European project dedicated to mental health and well-being in the circus arts sector, co-funded by the European Commission's Creative Europe programme and coordinated by FEDEC in collaboration with Codarts, Circus Dance Festival, Filip Jacobson, Miikkael Kukkula, Around About Circus, and associated partners Circuscentrum, Circus City and ON THE EDGE Festival. Find out more here.