Where is hospitality and mental health moving?

I wanted to open a topic for discussion that is so close to my heart and that is hospitality and mental health. Before Covid I became the founder of Hospo For Life, a pure and honest, give back self funded organisation to provide 24hr registered psychological assistance to those that needed it. Hospo Happy Hour was born during Covid with the support of humble human beings from the UK that wanted to support the Australian hospitality industry and once it was over that’s where it slowed down. We found it extremely difficult to gain NFP status and even with a very select board of professionals, becoming a one stop charity for the industry proved extremely hard. After all of this we ran into problems with other organisations springing up.

We had the likes of The White Jacket Effect that bowed out in 2022, they were an absolute thorn in my side and proclaimed to be helping the industry with their story of battles as chefs, webinars that echoed the same message that the hospitality industry was a dark place, kitchens leading to burnout, full of alcoholics and drug users .But in the background it was a totally different story. I had Amber and her associates contacting me via zoom, unfriendly phone calls at random times after blocking me on social accounts, bashing me verbally that I was competition to them and needed to stop, threatening me with legal action and that the profits they were making weren’t going back into the industry, but paying their wages so I was a threat to them and the competition needed to stop. Although they were asking for donations and sponsors, I used my own money and sponsorship dollars to go into positive, impactful resources and tools with professionals at Altius Group to support the industry, inspire others and keep the negative slur of the industry battles to the bare minimum.

This year I reached out to the wider community to build a support group, where members of the hospitality community could get together, share stories and inspire each other in the open air with a professional at each session for those to take a step out of the group and talk to someone if needed. Another impactful tool for those in the industry to clear their head of issues in a supportive space.I ran into these past issues once again, The Burnt Chef Project. After a very hasty and defensive zoom with CEO Kris Hall in the UK who didn’t really have much time of day for me at all summed it up in reality. The one thing that rang loud and clear was competition again. A single statement that sunk in and felt I was going to have another battle on my hands was that their isn’t room for the both of us, should he just pull out of Australia all together after the amount of money he has plunged into this venture and not really got anything back for it. Even after messaging the Australian Ambassador Alan Tompkins with honesty and questions that I was concerned about, I received no response, only read receipts and then blocked across all of social media. Not the encouraging way to deal with colleagues that have tried their hardest to support the industry and stand to be an ambassador of mental health.

Is this what the industry has come to? Is it too hard or maybe perhaps intentions aren’t pure, to pronounce they care about mental health but can’t answer questions and then go block people for asking? This poses the question, why can’t organisations in the mental health space in Australian hospitality work together. One team one dream right? If people put their heads, hearts and wallets together it would become a stronger driving force of support in the industry? I have learnt that a lot like to throw the word mental health out there during mental health month or RUOK day but then it’s forgotten about until it comes around again. Don’t get me wrong, there are so many that care about their teams and the mental health of their colleagues, but do a great deal of industry professionals just pretend to care about the subject for the attention they grab on social media from it for self-promotion? Because their actions prove the complete opposite. I feel the industry drum has been beaten for too long about the negative impacts it has had on people, but we are no closer to solutions like other industries that have gone out and formed. The building industry has Mates In Construction what an organisation, yet one of the largest industries in Australia is still talking about the same old that has been spoken about for decades and are no closer to being fixed. I feel it is time that these organisations that feel they are competing need to slow down and think about how they are operating, there is no competition when it comes to mental health nor their ever should be, if your intentions are pure and honest, you are in it to make a difference, not become a hindrance.

#foodforthought #burntbytheburntchef #mentalhealthmatters #caringissharing #inittogether #hospitalitymentalhealth