Welcome to this LISPublicHealth Wiki.
The aim of this Wiki is to collect supporting examples of areas where librarians and libraries are engaged with, and making an impact on, public health.
This is to inform Policy Development by CILIP . Public health is one of three priority policy themes for CILIP. A small group spun off from the CILIP Policy Development Committee has been working with Guy Daines (Director, Policy & Advocacy) in support of this work. Public Health is a cross sectoral issue with a significant contribution already taking place from librarians and the potential for further development and partnership.
A draft document is being prepared for discussion and input from wider interested groups. The final result will be supported by a programme of advocacy work.
A fringe event was staged at Umbrella with a presentation on NHS Choices and the CILIP policy work to date (you can access the presentation on the section of the HLG website for Umbrella 2007). A group exercise was completed discussing some of the issues and opportunities. This drew a good range of people and discussion.
Below you will find details of some of the information brought forward at the Umbrella event and through other research. Please use this wiki to add other examples and to flesh out those that you may have been involved in. Given the nature of the project we are particularly keen to hear about cross sectoral partnerships and models that could be expanded given more resource or support. You may also want to suggest what we might do if we had the resources.
If you struggle to update this wiki then drop me an email and I will be glad to add your material / assist alan.fricker@newhamhealth.nhs.uk . I will edit things if they get too messy and may yet subdivide the site.
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An excellent place for people to start if they are considering this topic is the work of MLA South East who have prodced a number of useful items under their Health and Well-being strand including a toolkit and a pair of documents from Sue Lacey Bryant Searching for Health Information (a rapid literature review) and Access to Health Information in the South East: A Survey of Activity in Libraries
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The Health Information Toolkit includes an extensive range of case studies reporting on initiatives such as books on prescription, as well as promoting health (including Health activism, healthy living road shows, workplace walks - to name just a few).
It also covers aspects of health on the web inc popular and recommended websites, and approaches to evaluating the quality of health information on the Net.
Finally the Toolkit looks at issues around referring enquiries. A Checklist designed to help identify where best to refer members of the public needing health information may be helpful in stimulating discussion between colleagues from neighbouring libraries and information service.
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The review on "Searching for Health Information" took as a baseline the 2004 report by Sihota and Lennard "Health literacy: being able to make the most of health" (PDF, 882kb) (Note URL changed since Sue Lacey Bryant report in May 2007!). This is a comprehensive report, well worth the time to read
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The following examples were mostly gathered at the Umbrella event - please edit them to update and add your examples where most appropriate - I have added some urls where I could find them - they are in no particular order:
Reminiscence groups - Does anyone have any examples / locations / published reports?
Herts Public Library have recently updated their web resource guide around health (is this the right page?)
Slough – from the site "Health Awareness at Slough Library - Health Awareness visitors will be available on the First Floor 12.00pm-2.00pm on Wednesdays, and 11.00am-2.00pm on Saturdays. Drop in between these times for information and advice."
Healthy families week also staged?
Haringey PL – weekly health group?
Partnership for patients – currently running 10 pilots with Public Libraries helping people with finding information in support of choose and book decisions. Public Libraries have "buddy" NHS libraries.
Outreach to care homes - I know this happens in Newham and no doubt elsewhere (any really good examples?)
Gloucester museums – single mums arts courses as confidence builders (I couldn't locate details of this)
Health information week in the West Midlands (2-7 July 2007)
Audrey Marshall at Brighton has done a lot of research in this area – partnership with libraries and patients around self management / weight management. Also Informing Health project and research at jubilee library discussing health with library users
Bolton PCT and Public Libraries – Colocated service with resultant longer hours and wider access to the collection
See also work in Harrow, Lewisham and Kingston (any details of this?)
Public libraries based in hospitals - sheffield , Newham, others...
MLA North East commissioned LISU to do a study in this area a couple of years ago
Health Inform - follow the link for an outline of this service operated out of Barnet PCT - contact linda.farley@barnet-pct.nhs.uk for full details / operational policy etc
Inspire – access to specialist collections via referral (see article in Update 6(1-2) Jan / Feb 2007 "Why bother to Work together" pg 34-35) not online.
Books on prescription is widely underway (examples Herts PL , bibliotherapy in East Ayrshire). Some now considering kids books on prescription (see http://www.healthybooks.org.uk/ as a resource)
Information prescriptions – project site for the 20 pilots
West Essex + Suffolk – Macmillan linked cancer info schemes (Christie and the Wirral also working in the cancer area)
Skilled for health pilot project in London - Aims to improve both health and skills for life. In Newham we have linked up with Street League, an organization supporting ex-offenders and people who have experienced homelessness and/or mental health problems. We plan to run Skilled for Health sessions for them in at least one Newham library, taught by a Skills for Life teacher, and ideally with the support of health development workers.
Reader development using health + also linkages to Adult Learners Week in Herts (evidence)
Sheffield – Womens health information bureau run by libraries. Also Upper Thorpe is a combined library, gp / leisure centre / social care
Presentations from April 2007 conference organised by ebase at UCE mostly on bibliotherapy
includes national overview by Debbie Hicks
Table of examples from the Youth Libraries Group
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Cambridge
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Cambridgeshire developed Health Information Points in libraries with leaflets and downloadable information; what resulted was a large collection of leaflets, booklets and downloads on varied subjects (weaning, bedwetting, threadworms, behaviour) which we provide free of charge. We piloted the collection in Chatteris Library and obtained funding from the Surestart Board to purchase materials which were not free to us. The Chair of the Board requested that this service should be spread to all Health Visitors and surgeries in the Surestart area. Chatteris and March libraries house the full collection, all GP surgeries and Health visitors have digest collections. An outreach worker took the service out to the villages alongside our outreach library loans service. This is a service which can easily be incorporated into the Children's Centre agenda for public health and families, it also fits with public library targets too.
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Rosie Veitch
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Lancashire
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Preston PCT funded 3 sets of resources to support young people's mental health. The resources were selected by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team in partnership with the library service and the collections are housed in 3 local libraries. Most of the resources are available for general loan to the public but a proportion of the stock is kept for "prescription only" and issued in a similar way to the other Book Prescription titles. The CAMHS team sometimes ask us for suggestions for titles for particular situations and make recommendations for possible stock purchase.
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Hazel Becker
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Northamptonshire
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Northamptonshire was commended by the Chartermark inspectors and TAES critical friends for it's excellent partnership work especially in terms of its wellbeing zones and its involvement in the development of the 'wellbeing on the web' site which is part of the people's network (devised by the PCT and executed by Northamptonshire Central staff). Negotiation is also taking place with the local CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) around a new mental health collection for children and young people, and developing a books on prescription approach building on the existing adult service. we already deliver.
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Tricia Adams
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Plymouth
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An Outreach Support Officer has just undertaken risk assessments and set up sessions with the Occupational Therapist at Mount Gould Hospital, working with young people aged 12 -18 in the residential psychiatric unit with acute mental health difficulties. The young people are living in a hospital setting and given that there are similar engagement and resistance to education issues the sessions will follow the positive content of Plymouth’s Youth Offenders sessions: "Literature with a Twist". The visits to hospital and public library are due to start in July for an eight week programme.
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Julia Hale
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Gwent
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Gwent lead on a book prescription scheme for families to help children experiencing difficulties, ranging from potty training to bereavement. It is run on similar lines to the adult book prescription scheme. There is a website for more information: http://www.bookstohelp.co.uk
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Tracey Paddon
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Poole
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Poole are launching a children and family bibliotherapy scheme in September, which involves a booklist of titles to help families in areas of social and behaviour development. It will be promoted through health visitors and other health professionals, as well as having very noticeable displays in all libraries.
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Julie Musselwhite
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---- item on the Public Health observatories
I work in a Public Health Observatory for the South East of England. There are nine such observatories in England and one each in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (which covers both Northern and the Republic). Our parent organisation is the Association of Public Health observatories (APHO – http://www.apho.org.uk). The information and web sites for the organisations are more geared towards Public Health workers than the general public and include reports, data, and tools. Additionally, in the South East and Tees Valley, collaborative web sites are available that focus on information at a local level. The web sites in the South East are known as Public Health Knowledge Exchanges and can be found at http://www.southcentralpublichealth.org.uk for the South Central Health Authority and http://www.southeastcoastpublichealth.org.uk for the South East Coast HA. In Tees Valley the site is known simply as Tees Valley Public Health and can be found at http://www.teespublichealth.nhs.uk.
Currently the National Library for Public Health is being redeveloped as a Specialist Library under the National Library for Health. The Government Office for the South East (GOSE) Regional Public Health Group has just issued a number of leaflets related to public health in the South East (http://www.sepho.org.uk/viewResource.aspx?id=10951, http://www.sepho.org.uk/viewResource.aspx?id=10952, and http://www.sepho.org.uk/viewResource.aspx?id=10953).
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Patient Information Centres from EQUIP (electronic quality information for patients)
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For the sake of clarity, and to focus thinking on where library services, and partnership wokring between librraies in different sectors can be most effective, I wonder if it might be helpful to think carefully about our use of terminology?
One approach would be to make distinctions in these terms:
Health information - focussed on health and well-being; health improvement for individuals. Promoting healthy lifestyles, enabling people to learn about health at different stages of life, and to respond to those signifcant life events which we know impact on health.
Patient information - information for patients, families and their carers - spanning diagnosis, prognosis, treatment options, self-care.
Providing information at different points, a time when recall is hampered by the stress of the situation
Public health - about population level initiatives to promote health; cross-sectoral working , generally with some NHS input.
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I think that being aware of the word use and terminology is vital for the scope of the wiki--so that folks are aware of what it is here to do. I've just started a Definitions page. Feel free to add to it.
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