The Drinks Trust wellness services

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 21 May, 2020

The Drinks Trust has launched a number of new services focusing on improving the mental health of the industry and supporting them through what has been a troubling time for many.

The charity has recently been focusing on helping the UK drinks industry financially during the on-going crisis, with grants of £250 going out to around 2,000 members of the retail and hospitality sectors who face loss of earnings due to Covid-19.

Now, the charity is building on its financial support by launching a roster of new mental health initiatives, which aim to deal with the “emerging and likely long-term effects the current situation will have on the mental health and wellness of the [drinks] community”.

The services include a new resident wellness and leadership coach, Kat Hounsell, founding director of wellness specialists Everyday People, and who has previously worked within the drinks industry.

Hounsell will be delivering tips and tricks aimed at ensuring holistic health, with new downloadable content soon to be made available online.

Talking therapy and sleep and insomnia treatment also make up the new services, several of which have been brought forward to face the coronavirus crisis.

“Thanks to industry donor businesses such as London Essence and Virgin Wines and to all of our business partners, we are delighted to be able to offer our community an increased range of support services at a difficult time,” Drinks Trust CEO, Ross Carter said.

“We are very grateful for their support and hope that this is just the beginning of a broader wellness services offering. We would ask any business in the industry that is able to donate to The Drinks Trust to consider doing so, as our services are needed now more than ever”.

The Drinks Trust’s chairman and CEO of Bibendum Wines, Michael Saunders, added that many of these “vital support services” have been in the planning stages since mid-2019.

“So to be able to launch now is particularly important at this critical juncture for so many. We know demand will be acute and The Drinks Trust is here to help in every way that we can,” he said.

Among the different therapies available via the website, The Drinks Trust is also launching its first ever mindful drinking programme.

Going live in June, this will be in partnership with mindful drinking movement Club Soda, which supports people to make positives changes to the way they approach alcohol consumption.

The mindful drinking course will be open to anyone working in or furloughed from the industry who wants to change their drinking by cutting down, stopping or quitting for an initial three month period from June 2020.

The charity’s helpline is also extending its reach.

Launched in 2017, The Drinks Trust said this service will be looking to help “more people with increasing calls to our call handlers and, where necessary, refer them to therapists for counselling”.

The planned sleep and insomnia treatment was originally conceived as a Drinks Trust service for those working late shift patterns and struggling with work related stress.

Now however, with need from the wider industry as a result of work uncertainty and decreased physical activity The Drinks Trust will be inviting 300 individuals to undertake a week-long sleep and insomnia assessment.

Half of those will then qualify for a month-long treatment programme via Sleepstation, the leading UK provider of sleep and insomnia treatment to the NHS.

More information is available at www.drinkstrust.org.uk/wellness.

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