Love Island News: Dr Alex Welcomes New Aftercare Guidelines
In the latest Love Island news, former contestant Alex George admitted that he needed counselling “within 24 hours” of appearing on ‘Love Island’.
The doctor revealed that his life after appearing on the show was such a “huge change” from the way it was prior to entering the villa.
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“Not because the show was bad, but because it’s a huge change in your life dealing with social media.
“Within 24 hours I had an appointment booked and I continued to be seen, so I’ve had really good aftercare.”
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Earlier this month, ITV confirmed a number of changes to their duty of care processes ahead of the new series, and the 28-year-old doctor revealed that he is now helping producers provide aftercare to contestants when the series is over. He added:
“I actually gave some of my thoughts and advice on what I would change – and some of those things have clearly been incorporated, which is great.”
The show’s new guidelines promise “enhanced psychological support” and “a proactive aftercare package” following the suicide of two former Love Islanders – 26-year-old Mike Thalassitis, and 32-year-old Sophie Gradon in June last year.
Alex went on to insist that bosses on the show “really care” about their contestants and that he thinks it’s important that all contestants will now be required to have several sessions – as some may struggle to “ask for help”.
He said:
“Love Island’s massive and it’s done very well – and the flipside of that is they have a duty of care to look after everyone. From my experience, these are people that really care.”
“My concern is you have certain people on the show who, even if they’re really really struggling, won’t ask for help.”
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On the topic of ITV’s new aftercare process, Piers Morgan – who appeared on The One Show opposite Matt Baker and Angela Scanlon – spoke about the difficulties of the impact of fame:
“It’s really difficult isn’t it? People want to be on television. How can you be 100 per cent sure, whoever they are, that actually the impact of the fame that comes – we’re used to it, we’re used to walking out after a show like this and everyone recognises you or asks you for a picture.”
‘If you’re not used to that, what happens when you put people in front of a screen and off they go? It doesn’t just apply to Love Island or The Jeremy Kyle Show, or this show, or any show like that, it can equally apply, I think, to news coverage.”
Everyone’s thoughts of Jeremey Kyle getting axed? Shouldn’t love island too then? Let’s not forget the world we live in today, social media is awful. The society we live in today has so much pressure on people of all ages, with or without fame. #JeremyKyle
— Zara Holland (@zaraholland11) May 15, 2019
