Suffolk Libraries launches new self-help books for World Mental Health Day

Suffolk Libraries have a new range of self-help books available to help people with a wide variety of health and wellbeing issues.

If it's on your mind, it's in the library.

The new collections have been launched for World Mental Health Day on Sunday 10 October and are part of the Reading Agency’s Reading Well programme (previously known as Books on Prescription).

There are collections aimed both at adults and children and young people, all carefully chosen by professionals. The books cover issues including anxiety, depression, sleep problems and binge eating. Details on the collections can be found on our website.

The collections will be based at nine of the county’s larger libraries but can be reserved and borrowed by customers of any library in Suffolk. The books will be based at Lowestoft, Bury St. Edmunds, Ipswich, Haverhill, Newmarket, Sudbury, Felixstowe, Beccles and Stowmarket.

Paul Howarth, Suffolk Libraries Head of Content & Resource Development, said:

“Our books on health and wellbeing have become increasingly popular over the past few years and we’re now relaunching our Reading Well resources with these new collections. The books cover a wide range of wellbeing themes and subjects which can affect anyone. They’re all chosen by experts or people who’ve experienced the issue themselves so they really can make a positive difference to people’s health or wellbeing.”

Reading Well is delivered by The Reading Agency in partnership with Libraries Connected. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has recently funded a universal roll-out of the reading lists to every library service across England to support mental health.

Figures from the Reading Agency show that 2.6 million Reading Well books have been borrowed from libraries and 91% of people surveyed found their book helpful.

For more information on Reading Well, visit their website.