Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services held an event for barbers and cosmetologists on Monday. Around 50 barbers and cosmetologists from across Montgomery County attended the event.
They were put through Question, Persuade, and Refer training. QPR is a method that can help prevent suicide.
The trainers say that barber shops and hair salons are safe places for people across all sorts of different communities. Sometimes, these customers disclose personal matters like mental health issues, and the hairdressers need to know how to respond appropriately.
Amy Hamilton, a project coordinator for ADAMHS, said the organization identified this issue and set out to solve it.
“These are trusted individuals in the community,” she said. “They are our gatekeepers. And so we need to instill these tools and resources that we have. And there are free resources that we have in the community and that they can provide to the public.”
Officials at ADAMHS say that those trained are not substitutes for mental health professionals, but can serve as the first stepping stone to receiving help.
“I’ve had some clients open up to me about their own suicide attempts, about their own mental health issues, and about family members who have been hurt,” Tiffani Kossoudji, a local cosmetologist, said. “All of these issues that come into play and into this salon setting where, me as a, young out of cosmetology school, 18-year-old I’m like, what is going on in the world right now?”
To learn more about training, you can visit https://mcadamhs.org/.
