WHO HAVE WE HELPED RECENTLY?

Here at STF, our key aim is to promote the mental and physical health of all community groups, which we further extend to those in financial hardship via the provision of grants, resources or services made available to us.

We do this by delivering free Mental Health Counselling services, and providing addiction support.  It has therefore been incredibly busy at the Foundation in the last few months, as we have not only been helping community groups via various initiatives and group sessions, but also people on an individual basis who have found themselves in need.

Here are some of the highlights from the last few months:

Mental Health Support

Our qualified Mental Health Counsellor Phil has seen a large increase in clients over the last few months, displaying a wide range of issues, including anxiety, PTSD, depression, bereavement and stress related illness.

In the last month alone, Phil has seen over 75 clients.

In addition to his Counselling services, Phil has also been offering Hypnotherapy as an alternative form of therapy. This is a paid for service that has many great benefits and may suit some people better as a holistic form of treatment.

Addiction Support

Our Addiction Support team, headed up by our Key Addiction Support Worker Chris, has been busy over the past few months, helping people to recover with their addiction issues.

We are delighted to announce that Chris has recently gained a diploma in Drug, Solvent & Alcohol Abuse Counselling – Level 4.

In the last month alone, Chris has seen over 35 clients in relation to addiction issues and continues to help people on an individual level as well as in group sessions, using a mixture of 12 step recovery and CBT recovery based tools.

In addition to the current services on offer, we are also looking to introduce a new group known as SMART Recovery. This stands for Self Management And Recovery Training and is an alternative recovery programme that provides assistance to individuals seeking abstinence from addiction. This is not just limited to substance addiction such as drugs and alcohol, but can also be applied to behavioural addictions such as gambling or sex addiction.

Watch this space for more information as we are looking to launch these groups in the next few months.

Veteran Support

We try and help people on an individual level or via direct intervention. Due to our Co-Founder Andy Reid MBE’s military background, many people that get in contact with us are Veterans or Ex-Veterans who know or served with Andy.

One such person is Neil Painter who left the army in 2015 after serving 22 years and decided to remain in Germany where he was based. Everything as going great until 2020 when Neil’s wife of 19 years filed for divorce. Neil re-located back to the UK to seek support, but on arrival he tried to register with HMRC and was told they couldn’t find him on the system. After serving as a veteran for his country for that length of time, Neil felt disgusted and hugely let down by the system.

He struggled to get work and even hold down a job due to his mental health and pending divorce, which led to financial difficulties which just impacted on him even further, with only him military pension to see him through.

Finally, he reached out for help and contacted Andy who promptly asked for his CV. Within a day, Andy had reached out to our partner agency Menzies Distribution and managed to secure Neil an interview, meaning he has since gone on to land a highly successful role as Transport Manager there which he is relishing.

We are delighted for Neil and wish him all the success in the future!