New From RAND: Libraries as Community Hubs for Expanding Mental Health Supports

New From RAND.

Toolkit: Supporting Community Mental Health in Libraries

In this toolkit, the authors draw from Libraries for Health (L4H), a mental health pilot program that aims to build community capacity for mental health and well-being by embedding mental health support in public libraries. L4H emerged from a partnership among St. David’s Foundation, RAND, Via Hope, and ten public libraries in central Texas in response to critical mental health needs and a shortage of mental health care providers. In collaboration with members of this partnership, RAND researchers developed this toolkit to share lessons learned in the L4H pilot.

This toolkit is designed to help librarians identify and implement mental health supports within libraries to support their patrons’ mental well-being. It starts with a description of the rationale for incorporating mental health supports in libraries and a brief summary of how libraries approached this effort in the L4H pilot. The toolkit focuses on guiding librarians through the steps of successfully adding new mental health supports within their library environments.

Research Summary: Libraries as Community Hubs for Expanding Mental Health Supports

In January 2022, St. David’s Foundation, an organization focused on advancing health equity in Central Texas, launched the Libraries for Health pilot to address the shortage of mental health care in rural Central Texas. RAND served as the pilot’s design and evaluation partner and worked alongside Via Hope, the pilot implementation partner that hired, trained, and supervised the peer specialists (described below).

Research Brief: Integrating Mental Health Support into Rural Libraries

This report presents findings from an initiative focused on embedding nonclinical adult mental health supports into rural libraries. The findings derive from RAND researchers’ three-year implementation evaluation of Libraries for Health (L4H), a pilot program funded by St. David’s Foundation (SDF) in which ten libraries in rural Central Texas worked to integrate mental health supports. This report summarizes how libraries implemented L4H, libraries’ primary barriers and facilitators of implementation, and the efforts and adaptations they made to build and sustain L4H. The report should be especially relevant to community members and leaders who are interested in incorporating nonclinical mental health supports within libraries or other community spaces with a goal of expanding the mental health workforce. A companion toolkit is designed to help librarians identify and implement mental health supports within libraries to support their patrons’ mental well-being. An annex to that toolkit includes its worksheets.

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries