support – Page 80 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Council support for young people at home

Advice and support for young people and their families in Edinburgh who may be struggling at home during the pandemic is available from thr city council’s team of educational psychologists.

We understand that this is a worrying time for everyone and that with the current school closures, children and young people may feel particularly unsettled.

Although we’ve all had a few weeks to make some adjustments and try to cope with the changes in our lives there will be young people and families who are struggling.

Our team from Psychological Services are offering advice and support to:

parents and carers
school staff and other professionals who would like support or advice in supporting the learning and wellbeing of our children and young people
older children and young people who would like advice on how they manage their home learning and wellbeing

They have produced a guide which provides key messages and recommended resources which you might find helpful.

Some of the key ways to help you cope with the situation include: talk to each other, create routines, keep learning, keep active and plan regular movement time, stay connected virtually with friends and families and take care of yourself the best you can.

The advice from Psychological Services is part of a package of support measures for families in lockdown that we have published on our website. Other online resources focus on parents/carers, early learning and childcare, school age children, digital learning and our own set of handy activities for families to do at home.

In addition the Council – along with third sector partners, wider community and voluntary sector – has been supporting vulnerable families across the city with deliveries of emergency food parcels, overnight respite care for children with special needs, specialist day services and opening two special school hubs for key worker children.

Council Leader Adam McVey said: “These are very unusual and uncertain times for everyone especially for our young people whose regular daily routines that they are so familiar with have changed dramatically.

“There might be times when they are feeling safe and happy, or other times when they feel overwhelmed, anxious or low. For many of us feelings can change from day to day, hour to hour, or minute to minute. So it’s important we do all we can to support young people and their families when they are staying safe at home so they can cope with this unprecedented situation.

Depute Leader Cammy Day said: “There’s lots of information out there just now so it can all feel a bit overwhelming knowing what’s the best advice for you to follow. The most important thing is to look after yourself, and those around you, and support each other through these uncertain times.

“Whether you’re a young person, or an adult providing support, our team of educational psychologists are happy to speak to you if you want support or advice – please don’t hesitate to contact them if you need help.”

There are a range of ways you can contact our Psychological Services team:

Call 0131 469 2800 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) and leave a message with your name, number and child’s school and one of our educational psychologists will call you back as soon as they can
Email us at psychologicalservices@ea.edin.sch.uk and include your name and child’s school. One of the team will email you back as soon as they can
Follow us on Twitter @CEC_EPS where we are sharing advice and resources that you may find helpful
Visit our website where you can access guides to help young people and parents/carers cope with home learning and being at home

Edinburgh charity receives over £22,000 from Scotch Whisky Action Fund

Bright Light, a charity which provides relationship counselling across Edinburgh and the Lothians, has been awarded over £22,000 from the Scotch Whisky Action Fund (SWAF) to support its ‘Families in Recovery’ project.

Three years ago, Bright Light identified a need to offer specialist family counselling sessions for children and young people adjusting to life with a parent or guardian recovering from alcohol addiction. In order to get this off the ground, the charity, which has been running for 73 years, applied for funding from the SWAF.

Now in its third year of SWAF funding, the Families in Recovery project is going from strength to strength, supporting between 30 and 40 families every year, with the charity looking to expand the project further to help more people.

The specialist therapy sessions work with the whole family, providing private counselling and giving families the opportunity to talk about difficult topics, often for the first time.

It focuses on the various strengths of each person and highlights how those around them can work together to aid an individual’s recovery from alcohol addiction.

By helping families in this way, the charity has an ambition to break generational cycles of alcohol abuse as children understand the negative impacts and learn new ways to cope with stress and anxiety.

Julie Hogg-Weld, Chief Executive of Bright Light said: “We provide a safe space for families to heal from alcohol-related issues and move on with their lives.

“This is beneficial to the person recovering from alcohol addiction, but it is also incredibly helpful for the whole family. People have a better chance of staying in recovery if they have a strong network around them and that is what we help to establish by looking at the strengths within the family even if they are no longer living together.”

SWAF funding has enabled Bright Light’s ‘Families in Recovery’ project to continuously provide its support, this continuity is critical to those receiving care. The project has come a long way and now boasts a seven-strong family therapy team, led by Sam Petrie.

Julie added: “The Covid-19 lockdown has brought many families’ issues to the fore and so it is more important than ever that we are able to provide support to those that need it. We have been providing our sessions via video conferencing and over the phone and will continue to do so throughout this period.

“Without the funding from the SWAF we would not have been able to pilot this project and build on it each year, providing fundamental support to so many families.”

The Fund was established in 2013 by the Scotch Whisky Association to tackle the effects of alcohol misuse and has already made over 50 awards to initiatives across Scotland working to reduce alcohol-related harm.

By 2023, the Fund will have provided £1m of support to charities. It is just one element of the Scotch Whisky industry’s commitment to addressing issues around alcohol and promoting responsible drinking and is managed by Foundation Scotland.

Dame Joan Stringer, chair of the decision-making panel for ongoing funding, said: “This project has achieved very positive results since first being awarded the funding, making a measurable difference to the communities and the groups it works with.

“Continuation funding is vital to ensure that their impact is ongoing amid unprecedented circumstances, and we look forward to seeing their progress over the coming year.”

Karen Betts, Chief Executive of the SWA, said: “Now more than ever, it is hugely important to be supporting the projects that help to tackle the misuse of alcohol at a community level.

“It has been inspiring to see the impact that this initiative has made, and we are pleased to offer ongoing support via the Scotch Whisky Action Fund, allowing them to build on their excellent work and increase their positive impact.”

The SWAF is now open for applications for funding in 2020-21, the deadline is 2^nd July.

To apply, please visit the Foundation Scotland website.

Disability groups call for urgent changes to benefits system

The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC), a network of over 100 organisations, have written an open letter (below) to Thérèse Coffey, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to call for urgent changes to the benefits system to ensure we protect disabled and seriously unwell people from further physical and financial harm during the covid-19 emergency.

Full details of these proposals can be found in the DBC reports section.

“Dear Secretary of State,

Covid-19 – the Disability Benefits Consortium’s proposals for additional short-term measures to protect disabled people’s incomes

The Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) is a network of over 100 organisations with an interest in disability and social security. For our full list of members, see https://disabilitybenefitsconsortium.wordpress.com/dbc-members/

Using our combined knowledge, experience and direct contact with millions of disabled individuals, people with long-term health conditions and carers, we seek to ensure that Government policy reflects and meets the needs of all disabled people.

The DBC welcomes the recently announced measures designed to protect the incomes of large numbers of people whose livelihoods have been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. But we believe that these support measures need to go further.

People living with a disability and those with long-term health conditions tend to have lower real incomes and higher costs than the general population and we are calling on the Government to produce a more comprehensive package of support, to better protect these individuals and their families, at this difficult time.

1. One of the most pressing issues is the current level of demand on the system due to the unprecedented number of new claims. This is causing extremely long waiting times and problems with the digital claims process. We welcome the commitment to expand the Department’s capacity, but the challenge remains considerable. We believe that the Government should give high priority to resolving urgently the technical and capacity issues involved.

Also, clear guidance must be made available (to the public and to staff) regarding the correct process to make both a digital claim for Universal Credit (UC) and a non-digital claim, including how the verification call is to be made – that is, if outbound from the DWP rather than inbound from the claimant.

2. The increase in the UC standard allowance is very welcome, helping to cushion the financial shock, which many will experience. However, other claimants likewise face financial challenges, especially after several years of a benefit freeze. We recommend that the Government should give a corresponding uplift of “legacy” and similar benefits – including, for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), the restoration of the Work-Related Activity Group (and UC equivalent Limited Capability for Work) addition.

3. We believe that artificial limits that keep many households (mainly with children) below basic benefit levels are particularly inappropriate at this time. We recommend that the Government should suspend the benefit cap and the “two-child policy”.

4. Any Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimant who loses their job over the coming few months will not be able to continue claiming WTC and will have to claim UC instead. This means they will lose Transitional Protection (TP). As you know, this is a temporary top-up payment that would have been added to their UC to offset any losses, when the DWP eventually transferred them from WTC – but it is not payable when you move to UC because of a change of circumstances, such as job loss.

Disabled people in work and parents of disabled children stand to lose far more than most people if they lose TP – sometimes amounting to thousands of pounds a year. This will make it even more difficult for them to recover from the economic shock of the next few months.

The recommendation above to restore the Limited Capability for Work Addition to UC will help, as long as these claimants can retain it in their UC calculation up to and after they return to work.

Also, we recommend that the lower rate of the disabled child element of UC should be restored to its level in the legacy system.

5. New claimants for UC will have to wait at least five weeks until they receive their first payment. We know that this can mean people face a significant reduction in income, leading to worry about how to pay bills and buy food. The DWP offers an “advance payment”, in effect a loan deducted from future payments, which can leave people struggling to make ends meet. We recommend that the Government should make all UC advances for disabled people non-repayable grants.

6. There has been no formal indication that work-related conditionality has been suspended, although it is difficult to see how it could be meaningfully applied in present circumstances. We recommend that the Government should explicitly suspend work-related conditionality and associated sanctions.

7. Currently, 1.3 million claimants have deductions made from their UC payments to pay debts – over half of them losing 20% or more of their basic allowance. We recommend that the Government should suspend all debt repayment deductions from UC, to ease financial hardship for the duration of the current crisis.

8. It is very important that, during this epidemic, people living with a terminal illness have swift access to benefits via the Special Rules for Terminal Illness. It is our understanding that under UC, people with a terminal illness will temporarily be able to apply via the Special Rules without the DWP needing sight of a DS1500 form (a form signed by a medical professional to say that the person has a reasonable expectation of death within six months). If this is the case, then this is a very welcome step. We recommend that the Government should extend this provision to other benefits which can be applied for under the Special Rules: ESA, Personal Independence Payment and Attendance Allowance.

There are further measures that the Government could take that are likely to have an impact on those living with a disability and in need of benefit support at this time, including:

9. As medical professionals come under more pressure over the coming weeks it is unreasonable to expect they will be able to provide medical evidence to support a claimant’s benefit application. We recommend that the Government should extend the time requirements for claimants to return paperwork and to gather medical evidence where necessary.

10. Similar pressures are likely to slow down the Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) process. This will mean people could be receiving less financial support than they are entitled to. We recommend that the Government should pay the basic/ standard rate to claimants whose benefit is suspended pending MR, until the process is completed – and also, fully reinstate a benefit that has been wholly or partly withdrawn and is awaiting MR or an appeal.

11. Help to pay council tax is also crucial at this time of acute financial pressure. We recommend that the Government should encourage Local Authorities to remove features such as the two-child policy and the self-employed claimants’ Minimum Income Floor from their local Council Tax Support/ Reduction schemes. Some have simply copied these rules automatically from DWP benefits, possibly without fully appreciating their adverse impact where claimants are struggling.

We hope that, when something like a normal life returns, the support package as outlined above, which suggests achievable and positive temporary improvements, to be introduced in response to a crisis, might prove a focus for longer-term policy discussion.

Meanwhile, we commend to the Government the above proposals to make immediate changes to complement the emergency measures already taken.

In view of the widespread public interest in the current emergency measures, we shall be releasing these proposals to the media.

Yours sincerely,

Disability Benefits Consortium”

Local help is available if you are experiencing problems with your benefits.

Granton Information Centre provides a free and confidential service. Telephone 0131 551 2459 or 552 0458 or you can email info@gic.org.uk

The office is closed to the public, but the service is very much running!

Creative Scotland announces further support for creative sector

Creative Scotland has announced an additional £2 million to further support and sustain the country’s creative community during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The extra £1million from the Scottish Government and £1million from the Freelands Foundation will be used to increase the original £2million Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund (Arts and Creative) which is providing financial support for freelance creative professionals most deeply impacted and disadvantaged by the cancellation of work due to the COVID-19 emergency.

The Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund (Arts and Creative), which re-opened on Monday, offers one-off bursary payments of between £500 and £2,500.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “The Scottish Government believes culture and creativity are essential to our wellbeing, and we are working hard to support those who make this hugely important contribution to our society as they navigate these difficult times.

“The Bridging Bursaries Fund is already set to benefit hundreds of people from the first round of applications and this additional £1million funding from the Scottish Government, along with the support from Freelands Foundation, will mean Creative Scotland can help many more in the sector who are doing their best to cope with the impact of this health pandemic.”

Welcoming the announcement, Creative Scotland Chief Executive, Iain Munro, said : “As these extremely challenging times continue, they bring with them serious personal and professional impacts to artists, creative practitioners and organisations and the work they do with communities across Scotland.

“At Creative Scotland we’re continuing our focus on keeping funding flowing and today’s significant additional contributions from the Scottish Government and Freelands Foundation will enable us to enhance support for those in immediate need and help to sustain people and their work at this time.”

The announcement follows the previously launched £11million funding package available through Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland providing dedicated resources to those in need of immediate support in the film and tv sector, as well as support for individuals and organisations to develop and create work over the coming months.

All funding guidance, eligibility criteria and application forms are available at Creative Scotland and Screen Scotland.

A list of other helpful resources and sector specific support groups and organisations is also available on the Creative Scotland website.

Over 250 care homes receive vital PPE thanks to rapid response specialists

AN EMERGENCY rapid response specialist has supplied vital PPE to over 250 care homes across the UK within 24 hours of receiving a request for the ‘lifesaving’ equipment.

Voyage Care, which has 259 learning disability care homes throughout the UK, put out a call for additional suppliers of PPE.

ECO, which has set up a full COVID-19 emergency rapid response solutions operation, responded by supplying 70,000 surgical masks within 24 hours.

Lyndsay Beal, an operations manager at Voyage Care, said: “As the country struggles to source enough PPE, we wanted to expand our approved suppliers and to add to our stocks quickly.

“ECO had it transported to me within 24 hours. It’s good quality equipment, at a good price – they haven’t increased prices during this difficult time. It’s exactly what we needed and I’m pleased to be working with ECO. This equipment is a lifesaver.

“We have over 10,000 staff all over the UK, and keeping our staff and the people we support safe is our number one priority.

“We are following all the government guidelines. So being able to ensure we have a sustainable supply of PPE is really important for us, our staff and the people we support.

“We are also working with our procurement team to look at sourcing our hand sanitiser from ECO as well, which will also help us.

“I must praise our staff at Voyage Care as well. They have been fantastic through this and teams have all come together to support each other like one big family.”

The team at ECO, with bases in Cumbria and Scotland, are experts in rapid response solutions and pride themselves on ‘getting stuff done’.

ECO has set up a full COVID-19 rapid response solutions operation with a range of anti-virus sanitiser, PPE including masks and visors, testing kits, testing pods, medical beds, and emergency buildings.

It has already answered the call to help a factory, which has a government order for manufacturing vital material for visors for the NHS, to continue production 24/7 by supplying anti-virus sanitiser and an on-call emergency sanitising team.

Eddie Black, managing director of ECO, said: “When we heard thousands of care home staff and residents across the UK were struggling to source PPE we wanted to help.

“We have a secure supply of PPE, including surgical masks. We also have anti-virus sanitiser, and testing kits and testing pods, so we were happy to supply them what they needed.

“Care home staff all over the country – just like the NHS and other emergency workers – are doing an incredible job.

“If anyone needs our expertise, we will get our teams onto it immediately to achieve what needs to be done.”

Any organisation or business which would benefit from ECO’s help is asked to contact 01461 500 206 or email response@teameco.co.uk or visit www.teameco.co.uk for more information.

Napier University answers Health Secretary’s call for help

Edinburgh Napier is using its resources to boost the national drive to increase testing for COVID-19 by sending equipment from its School of Applied Sciences to support health authorities on both sides of the border.

The move follows a request for help from the Health Secretary. Matt Hancock wrote to Principal Andrea Nolan on April 10 about the critical need for lab equipment to support the national effort to defeat coronavirus, and listed a number of priority items.

Professor Gary Hutchison, Dean of Applied Sciences, secured permission to return to the Sighthill campus with his family during the national lockdown to identify materials on the Government help list which have now been collected by a team from the army as a temporary loan.

The equipment loaned by the University includes four thermo cycler machines, used as part of the molecular biology process to determine if a patient test is positive or negative for the virus.

Following collection by the army, they will be sent to test centres across the UK to support the drive to increase testing.

In a separate development, Professor Hutchison has been in dialogue with NHS Scotland procurement and NHS National Services Scotland to make them aware of what equipment the University has.

As a first step, Personal Protective Equipment including body suits, masks, gloves and aprons is now being gathered for collection to support staff involved with the COVID-19 testing programme and other frontline activities.

Professor Hutchison said: “Assembling the correct equipment to meet testing needs in this time of national emergency is a huge logistical challenge.

“As Dean I am proud that our School is doing what it can to support the national scientific effort, our local scientists and frontline health professionals as best we can in this time of need.”

Staff at the University’s Merchiston campus have also been supporting health workers, by making scores of face masks on a laser cutter, and a training ventilator has been transferred from the University to the intensive care unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

North Edinburgh Covid-19 Foodshare Group – UPDATED INFORMATION

HELP AND SUPPORT AVAILABLE IN NORTH EDINBURGH

Final 2 North Edinburgh Food Network Info UPDATED 16 APRIL v3

Edinburgh Charity Delivers Emergency Care Packs to Vulnerable Families Shielding at Home

An Edinburgh children’s charity is delivering emergency care packs to families who have a vulnerable child and are currently shielding at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last week, Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity (ECHC) – which supports the Royal Hospital for Sick Children – began providing free emergency packs of food and essential items to families visiting or being discharged from the hospital.

Now, the charity has expanded this service and is delivering the free care packs to the homes of clinically vulnerable families who are known to the RHSC and who are currently shielding for an extended period to protect themselves during the pandemic.

The packs contain food products and essential items including nappies, toilet roll, tinned soup, beans and tea bags to support families while they cannot leave the house to go shopping.

The charity is also in the process of developing toiletry packs and creative care packs with art supplies to help keep children entertained at home and reduce isolation.

ECHC is delivering the packs to families’ doorsteps, as well as to nursing bases where community nurses and health visitors are also helping to distribute them. The charity will keep in regular contact with the families throughout their isolation period to meet their needs if they require additional packs.

Louise Sharkey and partner Graeme have been shielding their 12-year-old son Charlie, who has a rare genetic disorder and epilepsy, and his four-year-old brother Jack at home for over three weeks.

Louise said: “During this difficult time, ECHC continues to be a well needed support that we are extremely grateful for and have relied on during many hospital admissions over the years. They are at the end of the phone should we need emotional support and are liaising closely with the palliative care team to provide support also.

“Recently a care pack was dropped off at our house by the charity containing essential supplies that can be difficult to source right now. We have been finding it hard to get deliveries from supermarkets, so we were running low on things like antibacterial hand soap, pasta, toilet rolls, baby wipes and some cereals.

“We are very lucky to have a good family support network who have been providing us with essentials should they be needed but it’s not always easy for them as they don’t live close by.

“The bag of essential supplies that came from ECHC was extremely useful as it contained extra toilet rolls and baby wipes that we use a lot with Charlie, and cereal. Jack was delighted that it contained some treats too! The charity is a lifeline for many families during hospital stays and at times like these in the community too.”

ECHC recently launched its COVID-19 Emergency Appeal to help families having to cope with the impact of the outbreak on top of the distress of having a sick or injured child.

Roslyn Neely, CEO of ECHC, said: “Right now, all families are facing the challenges of lockdown. Keeping children fed and happy, and organising shopping trips on top of everything else, becomes even more difficult if you have a sick or injured child in hospital, or if you are returning home from hospital to begin an extended period of shielding or isolation.

“The incredible NHS staff are working round the clock to make sure every child gets exceptional care throughout the crisis and we at ECHC are doing everything we can to help to reduce fear and isolation and to comfort and support families when they need it most.

“These emergency care packs have only been made possible thanks to the kindness of our supporters donating to our COVID-19 Emergency Appeal. We urgently need donations to continue to do this.

“Times are difficult for all of us, but if anyone would still like to give, donations could provide a family with a much-needed care pack, fund a special play session at a child’s bedside or pay for a mum and dad to stay in our parent accommodation and be close to their child at the toughest of times.”

To receive a care pack – Families known to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children who would like an emergency care pack are asked to contact Leigh at ECHC on 0131 668 4949 or leigh.drake@echcharity.org.

To support ECHC – A donation of £10 could fund an emergency care pack for one family, £15 could fund a special bedside play or creative session and £50 could pay for parents and carers to stay in ECHC’s parent accommodation for one week.

Donations can be made online at

https://echcharity.org/support-us/covid-19-appeal

Shedders show the way

Kinross & District Men’s Shed (KDMS) is producing face shields to protect key workers on the front line during the Coronavirus pandemic.

This vital piece of kit provides a barrier to stop workers from touching their face and also protection from the patient if they cough or sneeze.

KDMS is using 3D printers to make the Polylactic Acid (PLA) face shields and requests are coming in at a tremendous rate from the community. KDMS Chairman, David Connor, said: “KDMS wanted to help and one of our Shedders, Jim Forbes, started working in his shed at home to come up with a solution to meet the demand for this life-saving protective equipment.

The Shedders have really stepped up and there is a team of around 12-15 of us involved in taking and recording orders, administration, printing, assembly, quality checks and delivery. More and more Shedders are becoming involved each day to lend a helping hand to this cause.

“Orders are coming in thick and fast from NHS workers, carers, testing hubs, postal workers and shop workers across Ayrshire, Perthshire, Fife, Forth Valley and Clackmannanshire. We had to set up a business model quickly and efficiently to get this right. Everything is done safely from our homes and we communicate through phone and video calls.

“We have fulfilled over 100 orders so far and now have an order for 100 more. We have been receiving photographs and video calls from the key workers when they have received their face shields and it makes everything that we are doing worthwhile.”

Jim Forbes, 81, said: “I had a vision to do this and researched face shields online and came up with a quality product – quick to produce, washable/reusable and light – consisting of four simple parts: the shield’s top frame; standard A4 acetate sheet protector screen; bottom support; and elastic to keep the shield firmly on the face. An advantage of the design is the bridge between the forehead and the face plate which greatly reduces breath aerosol mist (possibly infected) from entering the users’ eyes.

“This 3D printed version needs no tools to assemble except for a pair of scissors to trim the face plate. For Shedders with no access to a 3D printer, we also developed a second product where no tools are required other than scissors.

“Every single item is checked and the shield comes with an instruction leaflet for the end user. We initially had our one Shed 3D printer and my machine but now Culture Perth & Kinross has dedicated their five printers bringing us up to seven solely dedicated to this task.

“A local lady in Powmill who has been printing hundreds of shields has also bought herself another one and offered that second printer to help us if she has any free space. We are now able to produce an output of 40-50 shields per day.

“When it comes to delivery, there is obviously no contact. The order is simply placed in our gardens when we are notified that the person is on their way to collect.”

Shedders have been creating the products at home but are running low on supplies and have set up a Go Fund Me page to pay for much-needed supplies. The Shed has already raised over £2,000 towards materials to date.

KDMS has created assembly instructions, spreadsheets, instruction leaflet and 3D Printer files (STL files and G-codes) that it is happy to share with other Sheds interested in becoming involved to help with their orders or wishing to replicate the model in their local area.

Shedders of Scotland – it’s over to you!

One Year No Beer steps up to support frontline workers

Local Edinburgh start up, One Year No Beer, has sacrificed salaries to ensure a free service to support NHS staff, frontline support workers, all key workers, the unemployed and anyone who needs additional help in taking a break from alcohol during this challenging time.

The bold decision follows reports that confirm alcohol sales in the UK are up 22% in March.

Ruari Fairbairns, founder and CEO of One Year No Beer, said: “We are currently experiencing the worst global pandemic of our lifetime, which has caused two-thirds, if not more, of adults across the UK to experience anxiety.

“The major problem here is that people are using alcohol as a coping mechanism and this is probably the worst thing that they could do because it is a depressant. We want to help people to look after their mental health and live a better life.”

The brand’s plea follows a recent statement from a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert who warned that alcohol is an “unhelpful coping strategy” for the possible stress and isolation of coronavirus lockdown.

Fairbairns continued: “The NHS is under increased pressure and this is only set to worsen in the next few weeks as we hit the peak, so in addition to this, the last thing we want people to do is incur any other alcohol-related health issues resulting in an urgent trip to hospital.

“Reducing your alcohol intake and making positive decisions about your health are both great ways to help keep the NHS safe and protect others, all from the safety of your home.”

Recent research has also revealed that there has been a huge rise in mental health calls, as well asGP’s highlighting an increase in domestic violence and according to step counters, steps are down 50-100% inEurope, suggesting that as a result of COVID-19, people are exercising less and drinking more.

Professor Kevin Moore, one of London’s leading liver specialists with more than 35 years of experience comments: “There is so much positive research and work going on right now in the fight against COVID-19, but it’s vital that people don’t overlook the hugely negative impact that alcohol could have during these challenging times.

“It is well known that excessive alcohol consumption can lead to liver disease and various cancers. What is less well known is that people who drink excess alcohol are more likely to develop pneumonia, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

“That makes it almost certain that if you drink too much alcohol, you are more likely to develop COVID-19 and complications. Further since, alcohol impairs your immune system, if you develop COVID-19 infection, the chronic use of alcohol will impair your ability to recover from infection.”

Passionate about transforming the world’s relationship with alcohol, One Year No Beer will offer its 28-day intervention programme free for all support staff, all key workers, all unemployed and anyone else who needs additional help during these challenging times.

The digital network, which has been designed to transform behaviour and support mental health, will also include full access to the Challenge Group community, offering daily support as well as online meetings.

Fairbairns concludes: “We are giving away our 28-day challenge for free over the coming weeks because we genuinely believe that this is the right thing to do.

“We strongly believe that NOW, during this pandemic, is more important than ever to look after ourselves and one of the ways we can do this is by reducing our alcohol intake.

“Like most businesses right now, we are having to adjust to the current situation. Our team is working tirelessly to deliver this offering and I feel so grateful that all of our staff have agreed to take a salary sacrifice so that together, we can continue to support everyone in this time of need.”

For more information visit and to get your 28-day challenge for free, visit https://www.oneyearnobeer.com/