How ‘Love Island USA’ Takes Care of Its Contestants’ Mental Health

On the surface, the premise of the television franchise Love Island, aka escaping to a villa in Fiji for a couple of weeks to mingle with hot singles (plus a cash prize of $100,000 and social media stardom), sounds like a dream. But if you were told you would also be completely isolated from the world—unaware of what’s happening with your family, countries bombing each other, or things even as menial as Justin Bieber’s new fashion brand and album—and have your life picked apart during the online discource on top of that, would you still find it all worth it?

Love Island is one of the many reality dating shows where people compete for a chance at finding love. Audiences watch as relationships and friendships flourish or break down, sometimes simultaneously—and use an app to reward behavior that they see on their screens by helping to choose who stays and who goes. Contestants are not allowed to have their cell phones, read books, or talk politics—simply work out, navigate relationships, have a few cocktails, and see if sparks fly.

But as the show has grown in massive popularity (Deadline reported that this current season hit slightly more than 1 billion minutes viewed from June 6 to 12), the floodgates have opened for toxic online discourse as well as worry for the contestants’ mental health.

The production team at Peacock confirms to Vogue that Love Island USA has an entire team supporting the cast members before, during, and after filming. On top of the producers, managers, and HR, the show provides a duty of care representative, two on-site licensed psychologists, and a full-time welfare manager who oversees the daily care of participants and addresses any concerns and questions contestants might have.

Prior to being cast on the show, potential contestants, a.k.a the Islanders, will go through multiple rounds of assessments with one of the psychologists to better understand their background and the current state of their mental health. Deb Chubb, a contestant on season 4 of Love Island USA, said on her TikTok that each contestant is required to get a letter from their doctors giving them the okay to go on the show. Once somebody officially becomes an Islander, they are assigned a psychologist who they will see throughout their time in the villa.

Chubb goes on to explain in her video that contestants disclose all their prescribed medications to producers as well. Once you’re in the villa, producers will take all your meds (she said they were allowed to keep medicine such as Tylenol and their birth control on them to take on their own) and oversee distributing them daily at the scheduled time.

Peacock Production tells Vogue that each participant is briefed on the potential downsides should they be cast on the show, such as possible negative social media and press and having little to no access to electronics. The team adds that contestants will have an initial check-in with their psychologist at the beginning and then see them on a weekly basis for a check-in, but that the psychologist is on-call whenever a contestant needs them.

But many past contestants have expressed that more is needed from the psych team. Caro Vie Lacad, a contestant on season 1 of the series, took to her YouTube channel to talk about how Love Island could do more to support their mental health. While Lacad acknowledged that the psychologists on set were available at all times, she felt that the counseling was superficial at best. “It wasn’t anything digging deep,” she says. “[It] felt like I was just talking to another producer.” Leah Kateb, a contestant on season 6, has been vocal about her struggles inside the villa. In an interview on the podcast Call Her Daddy, Kateb said she thought about leaving at various times throughout her stay in fear of how her behavior was being perceived by the public, and had to see the on-set psychologist three times a day.

Mental health has become a main topic of discussion for the show—and reality TV in general— over the past couple of years, highlighting the darker side of reality TV. In 2020, Refinery29 reported that 28 former reality TV stars have died by suicide. Love Island’s UK version has been hit particularly hard, with three cast members, contestants Sophie Gradon and Mike Thalassitis, as well as the former host Caroline Flack, taking their own lives.

There’s an offboarding process for anybody leaving The Villa, Production shares, which includes two meetings with their psychologist before going home. Those islanders will also have many other resources available to them, including psych follow-ups at least once a month for up to six months and guidance on how to navigate social media post-show. But as for what changes to these mental health guidelines will be made for the next season, that remains to be determined. (Production could not comment on what new plans are in place to better curb the online discourse.) For now, fans are urged to follow the multiple public service announcements against bullying, like the ones made by host Ariana Maddix and guest star Megan Thee Stallion, to keep the online comments kind.

“The keyword in Love Island is… Love,” read the PSA shown on the episode aired on June 24. “We love our fans. We love our fans. We love our Islanders. We don’t love cyberbullying, harassment, or hate.”