North Hertfordshire College’s Hospitality & Catering students enjoyed an important session with Jack, a mental health ambassador from the Burnt Chef Project, about ways they can support their own mental health. The tips and advice shared in the session will be useful to our learners both in their studies and when they start their careers.
Jack explored different elements of mental health and stress, including different physical reactions our bodies have to stress as a result of hormones. Jack also took our learners through some mental health myth-busting to address some of the stigmas people have surrounding mental health concerns.
The experience has certainly helped our learners to better understand their mental health going forward. One of our second-year Food and Beverage students commented: “What I got from today is understanding how to deal with my mental health and deal with my stress and not to feel alienated from people just because of what I’m feeling.”
Understanding mental health and how to support wellbeing is important in every sector, but especially so for the Hospitality sector. The Burnt Chef Project reports that 4 in 5 hospitality professionals report having experienced at least one mental health issue during their career. By providing our learners with strategies and tools to better understand their mental health, the Burnt Chef Project seeks to help the next generation of the hospitality professionals become healthier and ready for their future.
Donna Ryan, one of North Hertfordshire College’s Hospitality tutors, told us: “The session with the Burnt Chef Project has backed up what we do in our classes. We are well aware of the importance of understanding mental health in our class as we do a lot of shift work, so we make sure we talk to each other and help each other out. The tools from today will be very useful for our students going forward.”
Many thanks to Jack and The Burnt Chef Project for sharing your message with our learners! If you have been impacted by any of the content in this article, please visit https://www.theburntchefproject.com/ or NHC’s Wellbeing resources.