alt.cardiff If it’s offbeat and in Cardiff then it’s in here!
Tackling mental health
£3.99 Issue 01 January 2022
A beer that could save the world
A South Wales brewery is taking climate change into its own hands by planting a tree for every order placed until the end of 2021. Drop Bear Beer Co, a brewer specialising in alcohol-free beers, uses the Ecologi platform to plant mangrove trees in Madagascar, Mozambique and Nicaragua, but will increase its planting level to one per order this November and December. Mangrove trees are selected especially for their carbon retention properties. Joelle Drummond, co-founder of Drop Bear, said, “We make a commitment to plant trees each month and we’re adding to that with the ‘cheers to trees’ campaign.” It comes as the Cop26 summit in Glasgow saw world leaders meet in an attempt to set meaningful goals to tackle climate change. In addition to the campaign, the South Wales brewery have just committed to the Welsh government’s green growth pledge, which will see them take steps to reduce their carbon footprint, and are in the final stages of being certified as a B Corp, showcasing their excellent social and and environmental performance.
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WORDS: SAM CROSS | PHOTO: DROP BEAR BEER CO
Drop Bear Beer Co will plant a tree for every order in November and December
Alcohol free and good for the planet... hoppy days! The South Wales brewery, formed in 2019, made news earlier this year, as Business Live Wales reported that they had received a £1.5 million equity investment from former Admiral chief executive Henry Engelhardt. The capital will fund a new brewery site between Cardiff and Carmarthen. Joelle confirmed that the site is expected to open in summer 2022, after some delays due to Brexit and Covid-19, and will create several jobs in the local area, while driving home the brand’s sustainability values.
We were unable to confirm the exact location for the new development at the time of writing. Looking forward, the co-founder has her eyes firmly set on world domination. She said, “We’ve already got a number of supermarkets in the UK lined up for next year so it’ll be a lot easier to buy Drop Bear. “Our global export presence is growing massively. I’m excited to take our brand international. “We’re modern Welsh and this is what it means: don’t pigeonhole us!”
14 Camra pubs in Cardiff
3 quirky activites for wet weather
The Camra Good Beer Guide for 2022 has been released, including 14 pubs in Cardiff and nine venues that weren’t in last year’s guide. The best-selling pub directory in the UK independently assesses criteria such as atmosphere, location and beer quality. The nine new additions for the 2021 edition are: The Andrew Buchan, The Deri Inn, The Flute & Tankard, The Grange, The Lansdowne, The Pen & Wig, Queen’s Vault, St Canna’s Ale House, and Tiny Rebel. One of the 14 is Tiny
Rock Climbing
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Rebel, an independent brewer originally from Newport, whose Cardiff site is situated on the corner of Womanby Street and Quay Street. Assistant manager, Ethan, said that it was great to be back in the guide and seeing people come to the bar as a result. Covid-19 lockdowns sent the UK hospitality industry into turmoil. Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the industry has failed to return to its pre-Covid turnover, even after the most extreme lockdown restrictions had ceased.
Boulders offers two main kinds: Climbing and Bouldering. Climbing uses a large wall with the aim of reaching to the top. Bouldering is shorter and more focused on moving across the wall, and uses no ropes! Intro sessions run at 8pm (bouldering) and 6:30pm (climbing). Clubbercise Clubbercise combines the athleticism of dancing like no-one is watching
with combat training and glow sticks. Clubbercise suggests that you’ll burn around 600 calories per session. The sessions run on Tuesday nights at 7:15pm. Freerunning Frazer Meek, director of the Fluidity Freerun Academy, says freerunning is all about exploring your capabilities and smashing boundaries. Classes are run weekly and an eight-week beginner course starts from January.
WORDS: SAM CROSS | PHOTO: CHARYS BESTLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
From running 15 events per month to DJing out of a bedroom Luke Priestley used the Covid-19 lockdown periods to strengthen their mental health
Top 5 Tracks
Plea From A Cat Named Virtute The Weakerthans Your Graduation Modern Baseball Cortina Sienna Spit Wargasm Lewis, Be Brave Clean Cut Kid Luke runs events such as Pwer Festival
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hile the lockdown restricted access to social events in public, Luke Priestley was determined to keep their music alive noting that some regulars rely on the nights for their mental health. The 25-year-old, owner of local record label Stereo Brain records and DJ for Metros nightclub in Cardiff, used their work as a coping mechanism prepandemic, but was forced to re-evaluate when live events were deemed unviable. “It was a very big shock to the system,” they said, “before lockdown, I very much thought events and DJing is what I do; music is my life and that’s who I am as a person. “Lockdown gave me an opportunity to focus on myself and figure out who I am, which did wonders for my mental health!” they added. It certainly wasn’t plain sailing for Luke. Making the leap to self-employed just before Covid-19 took hold meant they were ineligible for the government aid that was offered, but also left them without access to the furlough scheme. Luke said, “The government funding meant that if you’d been self employed for a certain amount of time, they would give you money, but I wasn’t self employed for long enough to get any of that, and I also wasn’t employed by anyone to get furlough. “There was a horrible middle ground of people that was just kind of forgotten about and I spent most of the 18 months on Universal Credit, just trying to get by,” they added.
Passing the Buck
Working from Home
The return of the public to nightclubs in August brought the introduction of Covid-19 passes for entry and, with it, additional headaches for the hospitality industry. “The first week it came in, we turned away 150 people at the door because of Covid-19 passes – that’s £750 before anyone’s even got to the bar!” the DJ said, “and the website crashed for three hours that day, too.” Luke notes, watching people going out drinking without restriction while being told that he couldn’t safely return to working in live events, was infuriating. The Stereo Brain owner said it felt like a fuck you to the creative industries from the government, adding that the industry is super undervalued anyway, but that was compounded by the effects of the pandemic.
Luke went from putting on around 15 events per month to DJing from his bedroom on Twitch, a popular live streaming platform. They admit that seeing people drinking in their rooms as they DJ’d was an odd experience, but the opportunity to take Metros to a wider demographic has led to new fans and extra gigs from further afield. “It was a really good experience – I don’t ever want to do it again,” they joke, “but it definitely kept me going.” But after feeling jaded pre-lockdown and spending so long away from normality in the last 18 months, is the spark still alive? “Yeah, it just made me realise how much I fucking missed it all, to be honest!”
We turned away 150 people because of Covid-19 passes – that’s £750 before anyone even got to the bar Interview | alt.cardiff
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How Wales is using football to tackle mental health
WORDS: SAM CROSS | IMAGE: MUSTANGJOE
Ten years on from the death of Gary Speed, we look at how Welsh football is getting more men to open up about their mental health
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he streets will never forget Gary Speed. A prolific left winger, Speed bagged 112 goals in 740 professional appearances, and remains the sixth most-capped player for Wales at the time of writing. Post-playing career, the Welshman enjoyed a brief stint in charge of Sheffield United, before taking the reins of the Wales national team. On 27 November 2011, Speed was found dead at his home in Cheshire, leaving a wife and two children. His death shook the footballing world, as former Swansea and Wales man Neil Taylor recalls to the BBC. In the decade that followed, men’s mental health became a nationwide talking point, as harrowing figures showed the true extent of the epidemic, which revealed suicide as the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. But what has Welsh football done to change this?
Pitching In Physical activity is often suggested when looking at ways to improve mental wellbeing. A study from the University of South Wales found that playing football had positive benefits for mental health, especially as part of a team where building relationships helped to normalise these feelings.
It’s all about coming together for a quick MOT on our mental health Philip Tyson is a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of South Wales and was part of the study. He said, “We think that team sports play a special role in enhancing mental health.” Philip cites biological, psychological and social factors as being key to the success of football as a method of combating mental health. Releasing stress-reducing endorphins, providing distractions from low mood and forming friendships all help to boost wellbeing.
Good mental health is always the goal!
Mental Health Football in Wales is a charity that was started solely for this purpose. Training sessions, competitive matches and tournaments are organised across South Wales to enable people to meet up and train as part of a team, with a focus on mental wellbeing through playing and connecting with others in a similar situation. Feature | alt.cardiff
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Football Association Wales (FAW) runs the ‘We Wear the Same Shirt’ campaign, which seeks to tackle not only the issue of mental wellbeing, but the stigma surrounding it. They claim that 90% of people with mental health problems suffer discrimination or stigmatization, which can prevent people from seeking the help they need. The campaign links with Wrexham AFC, Newport County AFC, Merthyr Town FC and Newtown AFC to offer weekly training sessions that get people involved with football and part of a community where they are able to share their feelings. Even non-targeted activity can boost mental wellbeing. Luke Rimes, 25, from Cardiff Bay, plays 5-a-side football once a week, and describes the difference that it can make, “An evening a week is often all I need to reset from the pressures and stresses of daily life. “Sparing a moment to properly ask how we are is what it’s all about: coming together, giving ourselves a quick MOT on our mental health,” he added.
The demographic of football supporters is a hell of a lot of men in the
Stephen said, “I think the stigma [surrounding mental health] is reducing and some of the guys who come along regularly are now happy to talk about their mental health with newer members.” He hopes that more football clubs will follow suit, as they target the specific group of men most at risk of suicide in the United Kingdom. He added, “More football clubs paying attention and supporting mental health can only be a good thing; if you look at the demographic of football supporters, it’s a hell of a lot of men in that 18-49 age group”
For more information on the Dragon’s Chat group, scan the QR code to the left!
18-49 age group Team up on the Terraces
Mental Health in Wales
But taking part is not the only way to get involved. At Wrexham AFC, Stephen Lloyd has launched Dragon Chat, an online service that encourages men to speak up when suffering issues with their mental health. The service runs a 90-minute video call every Thursday, with the first half offering a space to open up about mental health challenges and feelings. The second half brings everyone together to discuss the club: everything from transfers and injuries to performance on the pitch is up for discussion.
According to figures from the Welsh Government, Cardiff is currently the worst area in Wales for dealing with primary mental health support, assisting only 26.5% of service users within 28 days. That is substantially lower than the second worst performing area (Betsi Cadwaladr) at 56.2% and the Welsh national figures at 62.3%. This means that the majority of those who are actively seeking assistance with their mental health are not receiving help in the timeframe set out by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board in the together for mental health pledge.
If you need support, the following organisations are here to help C.A.L.L Helpline 0800 132 737 Mind Cymru 0300 123 3393 Samaritans 116 123 Y llinell gymorth Gymraeg 0808 164 0123
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In general, the level of government funding for mental health problems has increased slightly, from £746k in 2017/18 to £809k in 2019/20. This includes a sharp rise in funding for child and adolescent mental health services. Figures provided by the Office for National Statistics show that men in Wales are 4-5 times more likely to die from suicide than their female counterpart, and this figure has remained relatively consistent over the last 30 years. Watching Dan Walker’s heart-wrenching memorial to Speed is enough to bring a tear to the eye but solace can be taken in the changes that have happened since his death. Men are starting to talk about their mental wellbeing and that will help to eradicate the stigmas carried with it. Wales is taking charge of using football to enhance that change and the early signs show that it can make a difference, one man at a time.