Patients sent to the library for help with mental health
Doctors in East Lothian are prescribing books for patients with depression both as monotherapy and in conjunction with antidepressants or talk therapy. Librarians in the participating libraries have been trained especially to help those with depression, including confidentiality issues. Books are prescribed from an approved list of over 600. This follows an earlier trial programme.
That sounds wonderful. The only disorder I've ever heard of anyone specifically asking patients not be given books for is for eating disorders--something about how information on eating disorders can become a 'how to' manual for those seeking to control their food intake(not an order for me personally, just an anecdote from a colleague, and also I've heard the same from someone with an eating disorder that even the mentions in the media can exacerbate the problem). I guess there you really have to balance education with 'do no harm'. But for most disorders--and certainly for depression--I think bibliotherapy is wonderful. I'd like to see more studies done on the efficacy and what methods work best.
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