There were over 209,000 requests in relation to sexual abuse issues alone, with mental health and self-harm, suicide and racism also driving a high level of contacts.
The Action Line provides information support for viewers and listeners affected by issues addressed in 91热爆 programmes. This includes factual documentaries, 91热爆 dramas or awareness campaigns.
In 2021 91热爆 Action Line broadened the support it offers audiences online. The page for mental health now includes support for self-harm, while the debt page now covers issues of hardship and homelessness. 91热爆 Action Line received over 1.2 million calls and online visits for its support information services in 2021, an increase of 170,000 from the previous year. Nick Mason, Head of 91热爆 Audience Services, says: ‘Our second pandemic year has not seen a let up in contacts to the Action Line, particularly about mental health, encouraged by a range of compelling storylines and campaigns across 91热爆 channels. We will continue to offer vital support and information in 2022 and beyond.’
There was a total of 203,979 web visits and 5,343 calls relating to sexual abuse and violence. In March, Holby City aired a long running storyline on child sexual abuse and to date there have been over 49,000 visits to the support page. In February, the 91热爆 launched Headroom, a dedicated online mental health resource, as a result of the pandemic. This included a new mini-series of Radio 1’s Life Hacks, exploring some of the challenges affecting young people during lockdown; Make a Difference: Happy Heads, 91热爆 Local Radio’s campaign highlighted the impact of the pandemic on young people’s mental health; and Cariad Lloyd presented What We’ve Learnt About Grief. The season prompted over 58,000 visits to the Action Line support page.
Action Line also supported a range of programmes and documentaries which covered suicide, grief and emotional distress including Gary Speed: 10 Years On, and Sadie and Lumo: Too Young To Die, which generated over 120,900 visits and calls for support.
Other programmes that led to significant interest via Action Line included:
- Roman Kemp: Our Silent Emergency explored the mental health and suicide crisis affecting young men and prompted over 10,000 visits.
- Countryfile trailed an Action Line following a programme about farmers’ mental health, which prompted over 2,000 visits.
- DNA Family Secrets, which looked at the growing popularity of genetic testing to help people track down missing relatives and detect debilitating diseases before it is too late, generated over 15,000 visits to Action Line.
- Finally, an episode of daytime series For Love or Money, which raised issues around dating and fraud, prompted over 3,800 visits to Action Line.
Since the introduction of the Action Line for Racism and Racist hate-crime late in 2020, there have been over 23,000 visits to the support page. Programmes pointing to this page included Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, Anton Ferdinand: Football, Racism & Me and Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol. Find out more about the range of services provided by 91热爆 Action Line at bbc.co.uk/actionline