Supporting Community Mental Health in Libraries

Although libraries historically have focused on providing access to information, many libraries have expanded their scope to offer additional resources to their communities, such as computer and internet access, food bank programming, and language and literacy classes. Libraries tend to be trusted and welcoming spaces in which individuals from diverse backgrounds access valuable programs and resources at no cost. Therefore, embedding mental health support in library programming can feel like a natural fit, especially for communities with growing mental health needs and a lack of traditional mental health resources.

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.