A Hertfordshire charity is calling on the county’s businesses to recognise the enormous challenges its
workforce faces with behavioural addictions. The Living Room Herts is encouraging employers to help workers who might be affected by gambling, disordered eating and love/sex addiction in the same way as alcoholism.
“HR departments across Hertfordshire have procedures to deal with alcohol abuse in the workplace. The employer usually recognises the addiction as an illness and encourages the worker to seek help from a GP or at a treatment centre such as ours,” said Adrienne Arthurs, chief executive at The Living Room.
“But even if you recognised a co-worker might be affected by, say, an eating disorder, how do you broach the subject and would you refer them to somewhere like The Living Room?”
The Living Room provides free group-therapy at its centres in St. Albans and Stevenage. Remarkably clients can start treatment within three days of making an appointment. But the charity is experiencing a surge in clients seeking help for gambling, eating disorders and love/sex addiction
and is in urgent need of funding to support them.
Arthurs has turned to crowdfunding to address the issue and is seeking the support of local businesses to kick-start the campaign. “In return for a donation of £500 plus, we will deliver a talk to a business about addictions such as gambling and disordered eating. The presentation will give employers an insight into how to recognise behavioural addition in the workplace and encourage employees to seek help.”
The campaign has a £25,000 target and will be launched in October. Businesses that want to support the project should get in touch with Adrienne directly: AdrienneA@livingroomherts.org.
