Furloughed staff at an awarding-winning day spa have become suicide aware during lockdown.
The team at Soul Space say they want to look out for their clients' mental health when business returns.
Manager Kimberley Freel said her beauticians had been making the most of their time away from the Hyndland Road salon.
She told Glasgow West End Today: “All of the girls and myself have done an online course in suicide prevention.
“Each day of the week over Mental Health Awareness Week one of us took it in turns to put out a message and a post about mental health.
“Our industry has clients who come in and tell us their whole world, their stories - people disclose loads of things they wouldn’t normally.
'Insight'
“We thought there could be an awful lot of people who come out of the lockdown who have been struggling, and they could come in and start talking about it.
“At least the girls will have a few wee pointers of things they could say to them, or know of different places to send them to if we feel they need to go and speak to someone.
“The course gave all of us an insight into how you would speak to someone in that situation.”
Kimberley is waiting for the time when salons and beauty spas are able to resume business.
Transactions have been limited to mailing out skin care products to clients.
She has also run a number of competitions online.
One client made a generous donation to keep business ticking over.
Kimberley said: “The client said she would like to give us £100 that we could use as a gift voucher and give away to key workers.
'Our industry has clients who come in and tell us their whole world, their stories - people disclose loads of things they wouldn’t normally.'At least the girls will have a few wee pointers of things they could say to them, or know of different places to send them to if we feel they need to go and speak to someone'
Kimberley Freel
“We were able to give two £50 vouchers away and it gave us some revenue at the same time.
“That was really good.”
But lockdown has largely been a waiting game for the team.
As well as suicide prevention, staff have done online courses in Covid-19 awareness and the use of PPE.
They are trying to get ahead of the game by the time restrictions are eventually lifted.
Meanwhile, the business is looking at new ways to bring in revenue when the salon reopens.
Kimberley explained: “We are talking about expansion in a way.
“I have started doing a teaching training course, so that when we do open up we could offer training to other beauty therapists.
“We would have a kind of training academy.
“It will help if trade is slow at first, if people are a bit unsure about coming in for treatments.
“We could have in some trainees paying for training courses.”
* Soul Space is at 74 Hyndland and can be found at http://www.soulspaceglasgow.co.uk, on Twitter @soulspace10 and on Facebook and Instagram.
