International visit at the practice

Colleagues from Australia and Canada recently visited Frome to hear about our social prescribing work.

A delegation of international visitors recently travelled to Frome Medical Practice to learn about the Frome Model of Care. The visit, organised by the National Academy of Social Prescribing (NASP), was part of a week-long tour across the UK to explore various social prescribing sites. The visitors, representing several organisations from Canada and Australia, are all interested in expanding social prescribing initiatives in their respective countries.

Helen Kingston, Senior Partner at Frome Medical Practice, and Jenny Hartnoll, Development Lead for Health Connections Mendip, addressed the delegates, sharing presentations and facilitating a question and answer session over lunch. The group also had the opportunity to explore Frome's town centre and meet with representatives from the Men's Shed and the Good Heart Café to learn more about community approaches to health and wellbeing. This included hearing about the Kindness Festival, in which Frome Medical Practice is a partner. The visitors ended their day in Frome with an opportunity to experience the magical lantern parade and Christmas light switch-on that was held that day.  

The visitors expressed keen interest in the model's development over the past decade. Dr Helen Kingston said, “We are thrilled to know that the collaborative working across our community in Frome is held in high regard internationally. We understand that several initiatives, including the online directory and resource centre, the Talking Café, and Talking Benches, will be replicated in Canada in the near future and we are really pleased delegates found the visit so worthwhile.”

Published: Jan 16, 2024