Frome Medical Practice is inviting hairdressers and barbers, amongst other professions in Frome, to help them connect people in the local community with the wide range of support available to them.

The Health Connections Team at the practice wants to train as many hairdressers and barbers as possible to become Community Connectors.

Being a Community Connector simply means finding out more about what help is available locally and learning to signpost people to this support, which could help improve their health and wellbeing.

People often don't know how to access organisations and groups such as the food bank, health walks, benefits calculators, dementia support, and other free one-to-one support. Community Connectors play a crucial role in bridging that gap and the more people that know about the help available within the community, the more a community can support itself and people within it. 

Judith Curle is the Community Connector Trainer at Frome Medical Practice and said: "Hairdressers and barbers have a unique opportunity to support their local communities. While chatting with clients about their holidays or the weather, they might find that some open up about their health and wellbeing.

"They might sometimes sense someone is struggling but are unsure how to help beyond listening and empathising. This is where the Community Connector training that we offer can really help."

Christelle Roux-Beattie is a local hairdresser who has already completed the Community Connector training added: "Imagine if all the hairdressers and barbers in Frome were trained as Community Connectors and were able to confidently direct people to resources which could help improve their health and wellbeing.

"This could make an enormous difference to the lives of some of our clients."

Judith added: "We can arrange to come to your business with a bespoke training session and it doesn't need to take long. And it's not just hairdressers and barbers that we'd like to involve.

"We can train other groups within Frome and the wider Mendip area, such as estate agents, beauty therapists, teachers and more. Furthermore, the training isn't just for professionals and businesses, as members of the public are welcome to take part too. Anyone and everyone can be a Community Connector."

Dr Helen Kingston, Senior Partner at Frome Medical Practice, said, "So far over 2,200 community members from all walks of life have attended our Community Connector training, greatly increasing our reach in being able to share information about local groups and other help available in Frome. It is wonderful how we can all work together as a community to support each other and I'd really like to encourage more people to undertake our brief training session to help grow our reach even further."

To arrange a tailored Community Connector training session for your business or team please contact the Health Connections Team on 01373 468368. Alternatively, anyone can come along to one of the free Community Connector training sessions held at Frome Medical Practice.

These take place on the first Thursday of each month from 10.30am - 11.30am, with the next session due to take place on 5 September. Book by calling the number above or via the Health Connections Eventbrite page.

For more information about Health Connections and the resources and community groups that are available locally visit the Health Connections Mendip website.