Fears South Yorkshire women turning to drink to improve mental health
The NHS in Doncaster's launched a campaign to tackle it
Health chiefs in Doncaster are worried more and more women are turning to drink to deal with mental health problems during the pandemic.
A campaign's been launched to make sure they get the help they need if they're suffering from stress, depression or anxiety.
It's after mental health and alcohol support services both saw a rise in referrals and the NHS is trying to target support at females.
Kyla Bowman, Clinical Lead of the Doncaster IAPT team, said:
"Referrals to mental health services and alcohol services have increased quite dramatically during the pandemic.
"This is believed to be due to the increase in stresses of lockdown, having children at home, having worries about money and jobs.
"People are drinking earlier in the day. Whereas it used to be that you'd wait until you'd got the kids home, maybe wait until you'd started cooking the dinner, people are starting to drink earlier in the day.
"And there are lots of reports that this is a response to stress because it does tend to slow things down, it does change the way you think."
It comes on Alcohol Awareness Week this week which this year has a focus on alcohol and mental health.
To mark the week, the NHS in Rotherham and Doncaster has launched a online test/checker.
Kyla says drinking's not a particularly helpful way to deal with mental health issues:
"If people do start to become quite dependent on alcohol as an aid to manage stress and anxiety, stress and anxiety can actually become more difficult to manage.
"People become reliant on that - they find it harder when they're trying to reduce their alcohol intake to emotionally regulate.
"I think people will be quite surprised at the outcome of the scoring that comes up. If there are concerns and you do feel that your mental health is impacting o nyour alcohol intake, don't bottle it up. Contact IAPT."
Andy Collins, from Doncaster’s Alcohol Alliance – a partnership of local organisations working together to reduce the harm caused by alcohol – said:
“The campaign provides an opportunity for people to review and rethink their drinking and to see if it is impacting on their mental health, or vice versa.
“We have excellent services in Doncaster that can help, so if anyone is worried about their drinking please get in touch.”
You can access the online checker here.