After supporting more than 16,000 people in communities across Lancashire and South Cumbria, our HARRI bus is entering a new era.
Since its launch in 2019, the wellbeing bus has provided health, advice, recovery, resilience and information to people throughout the region, including carrying out approximately 8,000 blood pressure checks.
Hasan Sidat, Operations Manager for Community Roots, said:
“The idea behind the HARRI bus was that as an organisation we wanted to go out into the community to reach people who we might normally not have reached out to, and take wellbeing to the people.
We have done so much work in partnership with other organisations, and wouldn’t have made the difference we have without those collaborations and all the people involved.
Unfortunately, the current van has had its day, but HARRI will live on as a project and in a new van as we’re teaming up with our amazing Research Team and their mobile research unit.
We’re really looking forward to it.”
The original HARRI bus is being retired, with its Community Roots operational team now joining the LSCFT Research Team aboard their mobile research unit.
Karen Palmer, Research Nurse Manager at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“We noticed that when we were going out in our mobile research unit, which has been externally funded from the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration for North West Coast, we kept going to the same events as our Community Roots colleagues.
It made sense to team up and use our resource for Community Roots as well as for research.
We will be going out together, offering research opportunities, potentially novel treatments, alongside general physical health testing, offering a great service to our communities and reaching as many people as possible.”
Find out more:
