GroceryAid has been providing emotional, practical and financial support for grocery colleagues since 1857.
Spending over £4.25m annually and supporting thousands of people in need, we work in partnership with hundreds of supporters across the trade including multiple retailers, wholesalers, convenience stores, independents, manufacturers and service providers.
GroceryAid can help with a wide range of topics including mental health and wellbeing support, family and relationship advice, debt management and counselling.
Specialist counsellors are also available for those who have experienced a traumatic incident through our Workplace Critical Incident support. Financial grants can help those who may be experiencing hardship due to a change in circumstances*.
This could help someone fleeing domestic violence moving into a secure home, help towards rent arrears to keep a grocery colleague in their home or support where a household has seen a reduction in income due to ill health.
What can Relate Mid and East Surrey help with?
During the Covid-19 pandemic some relationships have been tested like never before but by offering access to Relate’s professional counselling service, GroceryAid is able to give colleagues additional support to explore complex or difficult relationship issues in a safe and confidential environment.
What’s on offer?
Relationship Counselling
Whether you’re facing difficulties in your relationship or you’d just like to get to know your partner better, Relationship Counselling can make a real difference.
Counselling provides a supportive, confidential and caring environment in which you can talk over any problems and think about ways to address them.
Up to six Relationship Counselling sessions are available.
Family Counselling
Families can be a source of support, encouragement and love, but sometimes relationships within families are put under strain and family members feel overlooked or misunderstood.
Family Counselling can include nuclear and extended family members, separated parents, children and step families attending together or at different times. The focus is on the family system and improving the relationships in the family.
Up to six Family Counselling sessions are available.
Sex Therapy
Sex Therapy can help if you’re experiencing difficulties in your love life and can help you to improve physical intimacy.
Employees of the Grocery industry and their partners can access up to six free sessions.
Young People’s Counselling
Young People’s Counselling is for any young person 11 years and over who is having problems. Whether it’s depression, anger issues, mental health concerns or issues with parents or people at school.
Children and dependants of Grocery industry employees can access up to six free sessions.
How is counselling delivered?
All the available services can be delivered over the phone, by video call or face-to-face*, meaning you can get in touch whichever way suits you best, even if you are deployed overseas.
Who is eligible to access the Support Services?
All Relate support services are available to those currently working in the Grocery industry, including their partners and dependants, as well as being available to former industry staff. Whether you’re married, living together, in a same-sex relationship, separated, divorced, widowed or single, we can help.
Are these services confidential?
All Relate services are confidential and no one you work with will be told that you have accessed these services unless there are safeguarding issues.
How to access the services
To access the Relate services, please call the GroceryAid helpline: 08088 021 122.
“With so many changes to the way we live and work over the past year, our relationships have played an important role in getting us through, but for some people there have been challenges. GroceryAid’s partnership with Relate, the UK’s largest provider of relationship support, has been there to help anyone from the grocery industry who needs support.”
Mandi Leonard, Welfare Director
For further information about the support Relate Mid and East Surrey can offer to all grocery employees past and present, their partners and dependants you can visit: https://www.groceryaid.org.uk/get-help/relationship-advice/