Mental Health In Libraries: Highly Diverse and Often Overlooked

There are plenty of challenges and opportunities to support access to mental health services in libraries.

How does your local library treat mental health concerns? And what’s missing in conversations about libraries and mental health?

What’s Missing?

Librarians with mental health disorders also play a role. We often mask our own mental health struggles for the sake of helping patrons. Maybe also because of “sanism” and stigma among coworkers. Librarians with mental illness deserve to be open about their experiences.

Worldwide, most of those who need mental health care lack access to high-quality mental health services. Stigma, human resource shortages, fragmented service delivery models, and lack of research capacity — leaving an expansive mental health gap. 

Mental Health in Schools and Universities

Four priority areas are identified for focused attention to diminish the lack of mental health treatment and improve access to high-quality mental health services. Mental health challenges, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout, can significantly impede students’ academic performance and degree progression. 

Recognizing and addressing the interconnectedness of mental health and academic success is essential for fostering a supportive learning environment where students can thrive both academically and emotionally. Fortunately, that’s where campus libraries can help. Many academic libraries are implementing mental health outreach programs at their institutions. 

Wellness Programs

Libraries can actively engage with students by hosting events focused on mental health. Workshops, seminars, and discussion groups provide platforms for students to share experiences, learn coping strategies, and connect with peers facing similar challenges.

Events featuring guest speakers, panel discussions, and wellness activities aimed at promoting mental health awareness and resilience can be coordinated by tapping campus expertise — staff counselors, nutritionists, athletic trainers, faculty art professors, and student peer groups. By integrating mental health initiatives into their programming calendars, libraries demonstrate their commitment to supporting students’ holistic development.

Safe Spaces

Academic libraries serve as sanctuaries amidst the buzz of everyday college life. So, by cultivating and transforming physical spaces where students feel comfortable and at ease, libraries play a pivotal role in fostering mental well-being. Some examples are:

• The library at William Paterson University created a “Leisure Lounge” that invites students to read for pleasure and serves as a reminder that reading doesn’t have to be a burden.
• Western Michigan University incorporates pet therapy (“therapuppies”) sessions at the library before exam periods, offering students a chance to alleviate stress and enhance their well-being through interaction with trained animals.
• Many libraries now offer “brain breaks” during stressful study sessions with collections of puzzles, Legos, and games.

Normalized Mental Health Discussions

Libraries possess a unique platform to advocate for mental health awareness. By collaborating with campus organizations, faculty, and administrators, libraries can heighten the conversation surrounding mental health and advocate for implementing policies and initiatives that prioritize student well-being.

Providing students with books and other resources pertaining to mental health helps further destigmatize mental health struggles, encourages students to seek help when needed, and gives them the information they need. 

Bibliotherapy at Work

Bibliotherapy, the therapeutic use of reading material, is a great fit for libraries. Making collections of ebooks available and highlighting them via a LibGuide makes it easy for those in need to find resources. The library is an essential curator of resources from credible sources, including peer-reviewed and scholarly literature, as well as popular and nontraditional resources that students can relate to and readily understand.

Libraries Play a Vital Role in Supporting Student Mental Health

With dedication, collaboration, and a commitment to inclusivity, libraries can nurture positive well-being among their communities. Libraries play a crucial role in supporting student mental health, which correlates with improved academic performance, higher student retention, and increased graduation rates. 

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Does Mental Health Overlap the Use of Controlled Substances?

Public libraries have a critical opportunity to support the information needs of patrons dealing with and impacted by substance misuse. Related programming and services are deeply connected to addressing health equity, and they help libraries link community members to critical information that can improve their lives and the lives of loved ones. 

WebJunction offered the “Opioid Crisis Support Kit for Public Libraries” to help library staff assess their strengths and capacity, identify key local partners with whom to collaborate or coordinate, and plan and implement programming and services that contribute to addressing the opioid crisis. 

Mental health issues can overwhelm those who are affected. Addiction is similarly distressing for the individual and their families. And when the two issues merge, an even bigger challenge arises. This intersection, according to psychiatrist Akhil Anand, MD, is called dual diagnosis or co-occurrence.

“We see a large overlap between substance use disorders and mental health issues,” says Dr. Anand. “For example, substance use disorders are twice as common in those diagnosed with anxiety or depression than they are in the general population.”

We spoke with Dr. Anand to get a better idea of why this occurs and what can be done about this unique circumstance.

Why Dual Diagnosis Occurs

One theory is that individuals struggling with mental health disorders may try to manage symptoms by self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, says Dr. Anand. And this can easily lead to addiction. For example, untreated attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia may lead to higher rates of substance misuse.

“Another theory is that substance misuse may cause the mental health disorder,” according to Dr. Anand. “Chronic marijuana use is linked to schizophrenia, for example. Also, methamphetamine use increases the susceptibility to psychosis.”

But a person’s environment also plays a role. Stressful life circumstances that trigger depression or anxiety can lead to self-medicating with alcohol or drugs.

Simultaneous Treatment

It’s important to treat the co-occurring disorders at the same time. “If you don’t treat the substance misuse, you jeopardize treatment for the mental health disorder,” says Dr. Anand. “And if you don’t treat the mental health disorder, you jeopardize treatment of the addiction.”

For example, you may need medication to correct the brain chemical imbalance involved in major depression. “Alcohol is a depressant, and can cause depression, worsen someone’s depression, and cause rebound anxiety. So even if you’re getting the right medication, if you keep drinking, your symptoms may not improve and if so, only marginally,” says Dr. Anand.

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Old, New, and Innovative Libraries

At the Legler Regional Library in Chicago’s Garfield Park neighborhood, there’s a new service residents can check out besides browsing books or using computers. One day a week, they can also talk with a licensed counselor stationed at the library as part of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s expansion of public mental health services.

On Tuesdays, Jordan Henderson, a licensed professional counselor with Chicago’s Department of Public Health, can be found in a study room at the library or browsing the rows of bookshelves to connect with residents who may need mental health services — much to many people’s surprise.

“People come to the library for all types of things, but one they don’t expect to see is mental health services,” Henderson said. “Some people come and need to vent. Others come for resources, whether that be housing resources, food resources, job resources. Other people need long-term therapy.”

Henderson has been providing services at the library — which can range from outpatient therapy to referrals to services — for three weeks and hopes to see them expanded. It’s the first new site of Johnson’s recently announced plan to expand the city’s publicly run mental health services. In addition to Legler Library, the city plans to reopen the Roseland Mental Health Clinic, add mental health services at the city’s Pilsen clinic, and phase out the use of police responding to mental health crises.

The Legler Library branch is one of the busiest distribution sites for the overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan. It’s one of three library branches, in addition to the Beverly and Edgewater locations, where mental health services are offered. Chicago Public Library Commissioner Chris Brown said libraries are natural places to reach people.

“The reality is, we don’t have a built environment for mental health spaces throughout the entire city,” Brown said. “But we do have 81 libraries in all 77 neighborhoods.”

To mark the expanded services, Johnson held a small roundtable event Tuesday afternoon at the Legler Library branch to discuss access to mental health issues and commemorate June as Men’s Mental Health Month. In 2022, men were roughly four times more likely than women to die by suicide, and rates were highest among older men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sitting around a table in one of the library’s community rooms, Johnson, Brown, 28th Ward Ald. Jason Ervin, and attendees discussed the stigma that can prevent Black men, in particular, from accessing mental health services — and the importance of receiving treatment from an understanding provider.

“I know, specifically as Black men, Black boys, it’s helpful, when you don’t have to always explain your trauma and pain,” Johnson said. “Someone who just sort of intuitively knows or they can finish the statement — just that simple head nod, where it might take a little bit more for that child to open up.

We all mask it, because it’s internal. It’s not a limp that you have. It’s not a crutch that you’re walking around in,” Jones said. “People don’t know if you’re struggling if you don’t tell them because we hide it so well. And then you have to be willing to accept the help that they give you. But you also have to tell them if that help is working or not.”

We remark, “Simply, go to your best friend(s) and say, ‘I need help.’”

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Mental Health Resources to Share

• Researching Low Morale in Libraries. Overview of Kaetrena Davis Kendrick’s work on low-morale experiences in libraries and possible solutions.
• Self-Care for Library Workers. Califa provides a list of freely available resources and archived webinars from Infopeople and other professional development providers supporting self-care work for library workers.
• Information studies prof works to address mental illness among librarians. Read about how an LIS professor is facilitating dialogue about mental health concerns among library staff by creating a zine.
• LIS Mental Health. This website features a blog, zine, and resource area, all geared toward library workers.
• Mindfulness for Librarians. Massachusetts Library System mindfulness resources, including links to social media groups, booklists, and downloadable materials from a mindfulness workshop.
• Working Toward Wellness: Exploring Trauma-Informed Librarianship. Library Journal article with firsthand experiences and perspectives from library staff.
• Books, Programming, Resources: Helping Patrons Through the Opioid Crisis. This collection of resources can help you connect patrons to the information they need to support themselves or a loved one.
• Helping Libraries to be Autism-Ready. This article gives an overview of the University of Washington’s new Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit.
• Resources for Social Work and Library Collaboration. Examples, articles, and resources to learn how partnering with social workers can benefit library staff and the people they serve.
• Public Libraries Respond to the Opioid Crisis with Their Communities. Barrington Public Library Case Study (pdf).

List from WebJunction.

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