Addiction and mental health with Russell Pearce and Patrick Foster
Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton host the first episode of our Mental Health Awareness Week series on addiction with Russell Pearce and Patrick Foster.
Addiction is a major problem in the UK and former Welsh boxer Russell, and former cricketer Patrick, know that better than most having suffered from alcohol and gambling addictions respectively.
In Russell’s case his addiction essentially cost him is gambling career while for Patrick, his gambling pushed him into almost doing the unthinkable.
To sum up the state of the problem, in the first nine months of 2020 deaths from alcohol hit record levels in England and Wales – 5460.
That is a 16.4% increase on the same period in 2019.
In July 2020, a House of Lords report titled ‘Gambling Harm – Time for Action’ found that half of adults in the UK gamble at least once a month.
A third of a million UK citizens are ‘problem’ or ‘disordered’ gamblers and it is estimated that for every problem gambler, six other people are harmed by the breakup of families, crime, losing jobs, losing homes or a death.
Listen to the podcast episode below
In this episode both Russell and Patrick will use their own experiences to help us understand some of the issues at play better.
They have incredibly powerful stories to tell but they both are also in a position where they can now help others – Russell currently helps recovering alcoholics with the charity Kaleidoscope while Patrick is the Director of Educational Programmes at EPIC Risk Management.
Interview: Alasdair Hooper and Will Moulton
Image Credits: With thanks to Russell Pearce and Patrick Foster
All music in this episode is courtesy of Otis McDonald
Mental Health Awareness Week is hosted by the Mental Health Foundation. You can find more information and support it here.
If you are struggling with your mental health here are some organisations who can help
- Samaritans: Phone 116 123, 24 hours a day, or email jo@samaritans.org, in confidence
- Childline: Phone 0800 1111. Calls are free and won’t show up on your bill
- PAPYRUS: A voluntary organisation supporting suicidal teens and young adults. Phone 0800 068 4141
- Depression Alliance: A charity for people with depression.
- Students Against Depression: A website for students who are depressed, have low mood, or are suicidal.
- Bullying UK: A website for both children and adults affected by bullying.
- Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM): For young men who are feeling unhappy. Helpline 0800 58 58 58
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