The White Jacket Effect looks to fix mental health crisis in hospitality industry
A young female chef is launching a new campaign to kickstart a conversation about mental health and the services available to hospitality workers.
Chef Amber Kaba has launched The White Jacket Effect campaign in partnership with restaurants in Sydney, Noosa, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane.
The White Jacket Effect aims to empower hospitality workers with the mental health tools to help themselves and their workmates.
After struggling with alcoholism, Kaba was prompted into action after the suicide of a mentor and friend.
"I've suffered with alcohol dependency to cope with the pressures of the industry, which I've survived through. I've not drunk for two years now," she told the ABC.
"But recently my chef mentor took his own life. He had asked my advice on how to stop drinking and I just didn't really know where to direct him, where to send him to get help.
"So as a consequence from that The White Jacket Effect was born.”
Kaba began her career at Sydney’s Quay before moving to London and working in Michelin-starred eateries. Apart from culinary discipline, Kaba says the training instilled in her a sense that to ask for help was a “sign of weakness”.
"So when I was faced with giving up drinking I tried that several times alone … and since my mentor passed away I've done a lot of research into the resources that are out there, and there are many professional organisations that are out there to help,” she said.
"It's just about normalising the process of reaching out and having it be accepted in the workplace."
"I just wanted to empower our industry with the knowledge to know what to do to help people around us."
Sheridan Randall, 5th July 2019
