Cllr Melvin Seymour launches the ambassador project

Sign up to become a Wellbeing Ambassador

If you work in a barbershop, salon, tattoo parlour or nailbar in Belvedere, Welling, Crayford, Sidcup and across Bexley then the borough’s leading mental health charity wants you to sign up as one of its Wellbeing Ambassadors.

The one thing all these commercial premises have in common is that a large slice of their customers visit them regularly. This means with a little bit of training staff in these outlets can provide wellbeing support to their customers.

Mind in Bexley can provide free training and support to staff to enable them to spot signs of anxiety in customers, be non-judgemental listeners and able to signpost a customer on to help should they need it.

Funded by Bexley Council’s Public Health Team, the project has successfully been working with a small group of barbers as part of a pilot initiative supporting men.

Now the project is being expanded to support both men and women and to a wider range of commercial settings.

The project originally started following research that revealed men are statistically more likely to discuss mental health issues with their barber than with their GP. This places barbers in a unique position to be able to help men battle anxiety and depression.

Following the success of the pilot Mind in Bexley has identified hair salons, nailbars and tattoo parlours as locations where individuals also tend to be loyal patrons and the relationship between a staff member and customer can assist with wellbeing.

All these commercial settings have a high follow-up rate with clients providing opportunities to spot changes in mood or extremes such as too much sleep or not enough sleep, losing weight or gaining weight.

The project’s training will help staff to recognise these signs and to ask clients how they are feeling, be a good listener and be briefed where to encourage customers to go for help. Clients identified as in need are given an information leaflet with details of Mind in Bexley support plus other providers.