Comment: Finding the tools to maintain mental health

The outpouring of support for Inspired Travel's Kate Harris following her raw and emotional appearance on a Travel Weekly webcast last week reflected the best of our industry.

The story was picked up by the national media and laid bare the vast gulf between the government's heralded business support measures and what entirely “viable” businesses actually need – and deserve – to survive.

The reaction also highlighted that Kate's situation is one shared by so many hard-working individuals who have spent years building businesses only to see their ability to trade snatched from them through no fault of their own.

The impact of this crisis goes much deeper than balance sheets, and many fellow industry professionals shared the toll the past eight months has taken on themselves, their teams and their friends and family.

When we launched our Mental Health Matters series last year, we could not have foreseen quite how relevant the subject would become for our entire industry within the next 12 months.

It is why we have continued to produce webcasts and advice on the subject this year, and why we  have hosted a special virtual Mental Health Matters discussion in association with Deloitte and the Mental Health Foundation to mark World Mental Health Day on Saturday.

It is immensely difficult to take a step back from the daily grind to consider your and your colleagues' wider wellbeing, but I would urge you all to watch the webcast (below) as we try to offer more tools to help you through this devastating period in our industry's history.