March• 2019 | 67READER’S DIGEST
ROYAL EXCHANGE“Father told me that if I ever met a lady in a dress like yours,
I must look her straight in the eyes.”- Prince Charles to a beauty queen
Held weekly in cafés in five towns in
the district, Talking Cafés allow people
to meet others and also to be directed
towards different services.
“Somebody said to me, ‘It’s a bit
like church – we always know you’re
going to be there and there’ll always
be someone to talk to,’” says Jenny
Hartnoll, the ever-cheerful services
lead for Health Connections Mendip,
who set up its website
and plays a leading role
in the scheme.
BOTH HARTNOLLand
Dr Kingston are keen
to stress that this is
not just a programme
about loneliness. “It’s
a programme to try and
help people make the
most of their lives,” says
Dr Kingston.
“Some of that is about
stopping loneliness, but some of it
is about non-lonely people who are
only moderately connected to the
community and giving them a greater
connection.
“All of us can benefit from having
more connection and more support
- and giving more support to other
people, because it’s a two-way pro-
cess. If everybody is incrementally
helped up to the next level, then that’s
when you see the knock-on effects.”
One knock-on effect has been a
17 per cent fall in emergency hospital
admissions in Frome over three years.
“It makes absolute sense to me,”
saysDrKingston.“Ithinkifyouhave
a sense of purposeinlifeandyoufeel
part of a community,
it’s much easier to look
after yourself. If you
feel isolated, you don’t
feel your life has any
value, you haven’t got
anything that you’re
offering anyone else
that can make you feel
good, you don’t feel like
engaging with things,
andsoyouaremuch
morelikelynottobe
looking after yourself
and end up unwell.”
ThebenefitsoftheFromeproject
seem obvious. In a world of increas-
ing loneliness, it’s creating commu-
nities that encourage care and
compassion for others. Maybe it’s
time for other towns – and countries- to follow suit.
“A l l o f u s c a n
benefit from
having more
connection and
more support –
and giving more
support to
other people”