Mental Health Awareness Week – Reading to support wellbeing

It is Mental Health Awareness Week from 10^th to 16^th May and this year the Mental Health Foundation has chosen nature as the theme.

This is our second blogpost for Mental Health Awareness Week. To find out about your library team’s thoughts on what nature means to them and their wellbeing in words and pictures, have a look at our previous blogpost. Check out the hashtag #ConnectwithNature on social media. We will be sharing posts around Mental Health Awareness Week all week on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

A great way to support your mental wellbeing is through reading. Especially during busy periods such as exam and essay writing weeks, it is important that you take time away from work to just relax.

Reading a good novel or poetry can certainly help with that which is why the library has developed a whole collection around reading for pleasure. In addition to medical and healthcare textbooks, we also have books you might find in any public library: good novels, poetry and contemporary non-fiction for when you want to take a break from your studies.

Some highlights from our reading for pleasure collection around the theme of nature are listed below.

• Step by Step: The Life in My Journeys by Simon Reeve. Find out the shelf mark here. The author talks about his own mental health struggles and how he has found wellbeing in walking some of the most remote parts of the world. Perfect for adventurers!
• Feral: Rewilding the land, the sea and human life by George Monbiot. Find out the shelf mark here. An environmental journalist talks about the importance of rewilding in the UK and across the world, reengaging with nature and discovering a new way of life which is much more in tune with nature.
• The sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur. Find the shelf mark here. A beautiful collection of poems in which the natural world plays a big role.
• Dream Work by Mary Oliver. Find the shelf mark here. One of the finest contemporary poets, Mary Oliver who won a Pulitzer Prize, writes about the natural world with reverence and playfulness. This collection focuses on the work of self-exploration.

Reading a good novel or poetry can certainly help with that which is why the library has developed a whole collection around reading for pleasure. In addition to medical and healthcare textbooks, we also have books you might find in any public library: good novels, poetry and contemporary non-fiction for when you want to take a break from your studies.

Specific Wakelets, or lists, we have created, that you might find interesting in this regard are books for Health and Wellbeing , Mood-Boosting books and the Big Read collection.

Mental Health Awareness Week – what nature means to library staff

From 10^th to 16^th May 2021 is Mental Health Awareness Week and this year the Mental Health Foundation has chosen nature as the theme.

Check out the hashtag #connectwithnature on social media. We will be sharing posts around Mental Health Awareness Week all week on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

In this blogpost, your library team highlights in sentences and images what nature means to them and their mental wellbeing.

Over the last year, many of us have become more aware of our relationship with nature, be that our balcony, garden, local park, forest, the beach or mountains. More than an appreciation of the small things in life, the last year has shown that we are inextricably part of nature and that nature plays a central role in our emotional and physical wellbeing. It has also become clear that access to and time in nature is often still for the privileged few, despite the fact that we all benefit enormously. Nature is not a luxury but must be available to all of us. Perhaps our appreciation for the natural world over the last year in combination with our increasing and continued damage to our planet has given us food for thought. In this sense, access to nature for mental wellbeing is a social justice and environmental issue.

With this blogpost, we want to raise awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing and the role that nature can play in that. We want to normalise conversations around how we are doing and that at times, we might not be doing so well emotionally or mentally.

What does nature mean to us and our mental wellbeing?

Sue – Associate Director of Information Services (Library & Learning Services)

Escape from the rat race
Space to think
Inspiring awe
A step away from the mundane
Tiny miracles
Expanding our horizons

at the beach in Hastings

Karen – NHS and Liaison Manager

Accessing local green spaces has helped me and my children digitally detox during intensive times of home-learning and home-working this past year

Emily (Information Assistant)

During the first lock down, when you were only allowed an hour outside a day, I tried to ensure I took my kids out for some sort of walk every day to get a bit of exercise and fresh air.  Being outside helped us to stay feeling connected to the world and I think feel somehow reassured that the sun still came out, the rain still fell, the trees still stood, and the flowers grew. It was a sense of some normality in the chaos that nature still carried on. It made us appreciate every little bit of green space nearby.  We always returned from outside feeling more hopeful.

Anna – Liaison Librarian (FHSCE)

Conversations about nature tend to cheer people up, and are a vehicle for a non-stressful chat with colleagues.

Stephen – Liaison Support Librarian (NHS)

Regarding the question of nature, I suppose the first impulse is to think of the outdoors in some of its grander forms (beaches, mountains, forests, etc.) before then considering those havens of nature which may be nearby to us (parks, commons, woods) which, given that ‘more than one in five households in London has no access to a private or shared garden‘, offer invaluable resources in support of health and wellbeing. 

Even more locally than these, however, is the nature that can (should?) be brought into the home (and work) environment. For the good that plants can do in cleaning indoor air; for the connection that tending plants offers to a larger living world; and for the aesthetic contribution that plants can make to any indoor space, my shout out goes to the humble (or showy) houseplant.

Jennifer – Research Publications Librarian

White blossom; blue sky

Delicate petals fall and

Again, I will sigh.

Blossom

Louise – Helpdesk supervisor

I like to be out in nature – in the outside, wandering in the woods – always nicer in the sunshine of course but I love lifting my face to the wind in early Autumn.

The main thing I think is how nature affects your senses;

Smell –  fresh rain – especially in the summer, flowers, freshly cut grass, even those ‘farmyard’ smells just make you think of nature in general.

Sight – new blossom on trees, the changing colours of leaves in the Autumn, freshly laid snow in Winter. Seeing newborns – ducklings/Goslings growing, tadpoles changing into frogs.

Touch – feeling grasses, petals even different textured tree trunks, pebbles, stones, sand beneath your bare feet.

Hearing – the most obvious is the bird call of course. Although noting beats the sea crashing on the shore if you are by the coast, or even the gentler shushing of waves.

Ros – User Experience & Operations Manager

Dan – Information Assistant

It’s always good to get out of the house whether its just to the park over the road or a car trip to the beach. Its about being out in the fresh air and looking at the trees and green or being by the Sea. I always feel better after I’ve been outside even if its just for an hour or two. It certainly improves my day. The dog loves it too!

Juulia – Archivist

Here is a composite of photos I’ve taken across the year of the trees in a nearby woods. Having access to a green space has definitely been a lifeline, and doing more or less the same walk every day has made me focus on the seasonal changes, and on all the small details you might otherwise miss. And it has made me really appreciate how you can find beauty maybe in some unexpected places – my local cemetery is absolutely brimming with nature & life!

James – Liaison Support Librarian (FHSCE)

When I’m outside in nature my mind becomes quiet and I have the opportunity to become aware of something bigger than myself. When I’m not so focused on me and my story, I can really begin to relax and start to let go of built-up tensions.

Georgie – Information Assistant

I’ve become a member of Kew Gardens in the last year and it’s been wonderful to be able to spend time in such a beautiful place. I had a lovely, quiet, peaceful walk there on Sunday morning.

At Kew Gardens

Alex – Project Archivist

I think to me, nature reminds me that I am part of something bigger, something beautiful. It makes me feel extremely lucky and full of joy but as I have gotten older that joy tends to be tinged with a bit of sadness and frustration at how often we mistreat it and take it for granted. Over the last year I have loved seeing people, myself included, reconnect with nature and take pleasure in simply being outside, but I have also seen how much nature has become a privilege that not everyone has equal access to and that it is very easy to be cut off from in modern cities. Being surrounded by nature, I would say, is extremely good for my mental wellbeing, but it is not always an entirely positive experience and sometimes I do leave it feeling slightly weighed down by my responsibility to do more to protect what I have seen.

Anne – Liaison Support Librarian (IMBE)

A chance to connect with something beyond myself
Miracles of colours, textures, sounds
The abundance of life away from a screen
Sharing the joy of nature with others
A spiritual practice and gratitude
Watching seedlings grow

Libraries Week: 8th – 13th October 2018

Libraries Week takes place between the 8th – 13th October and this year’s campaign is focused on the concept of wellbeing. Over the course of the week, libraries across the country will be showcasing the ways in which they bring communities together and support their users with their mental health.

So how can using the library affect your wellbeing?

– Research has shown that public library users are happier and have higher life satisfaction compared to non-users. Regularly using your local library is also associated with good general health: when valued medically, library engagement saves the NHS just under £30 million a year.

– When it comes to academic libraries (like ours), research into student library usage has indicated that there is a strong correlation between high library engagement and better degree results.

– Libraries are, of course, homes to extensive collections of books. While we can’t always guarantee that reading for study will be a stress-free experience, reading for pleasure has been linked to a reduction in stress and the symptoms of depression.

– Reading fiction is also associated with higher levels of empathy and improved relationships with others, with 76% of adults suggesting that reading improves their life.

By offering a safe space for reading/studying and facilitating access to fiction as well as specialised textbooks, academic libraries like St George’s have an important role to play in supporting the wellbeing of our users – whether they are studying or working within the university or the hospital.

For a taster of the types of wellbeing resources we have on offer, take a look at our Health and Wellbeing collection below. The selection covers topics such as managing stress, building resilience, and mindfulness to support you at work or while studying.

We also have a specially curated collection of Mood-Boosting Books recommended by the Reading Agency, which includes a range of novels, essays and poetry. You’ll find more of our fiction titles on the shelves under PN and PQ if you prefer to browse for yourself.

Click on either of the images below to browse these selections online, or use Hunter to for search for other available titles.

A selection of books from SGUL Library on mindfulness, wellbeing, and managing stress.

A collection of poetry, novels, essays and more, selected from a list suggested by the Reading Agency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might also like to explore our LGBT and Black History Month collections for more fiction titles, biographies, graphic novels and essays.

 

Over the course of Libraries Week, we’ll be taking the opportunity to dip into our Archives and explore the history of St George’s Library. We’ll offer you an insight into St George’s Library of old, and explore the ways in which we’ve supported our users over time.

Keep an eye out for a series of blog posts next week where we’ll look at St George’s: Then and Now. We’d love to hear your thoughts, please feel free to share them with us on social media:

         

Happy Libraries Week!

 

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Inspired to explore other libraries? If you live in London, you’re spoilt for choice!

A top-tip for medical and healthcare students is to check out the Medical Museums website as several member museums have library and archive collections that are accessible to the public. Terms of use will vary, so make sure you check with the institution before you visit.

If you are local to Tooting, why not join your local library? See the Wandsworth Libraries website for a list of their locations.

 

Library Supporting Mental Wellness Week

We are supporting the SGSU Mental Wellness week by putting up a book collection that includes celebrity stories of mental illness, meditation CDs, Ten Minute Stress Relief, an anti-stress poetry anthology, and books about depression and OCD. Whether you want to find out more about mental illness, or get a book to help you relax and de-stress, come by the Library to check out the display.

We also have two curated collections you can browse online. Clicking on the book image inside the Wakelet will take you to information about the item’s availability in the Library.

 

Library ♥ Wellbeing

Tying in with 10 Days of Wellbeing programme (SGUL login required) run by St George’s Staff Development team, we are running a book swap in the library foyer from  Monday 20 June to Friday 1 July, to promote reading for relaxation and pleasure, as well introducing a new collection of books.

Book Swap in the library foyer from 20 June – 1st July

From 20 June – 1 July, we’ll be putting out a trolley of fiction books in library for you to enjoy.  St George’s staff and student are free to pick a book to read (initial collection kindly donated by Library staff)  and to drop off a book on the trolley for sharing with others.

Mood-boosting books – available from 20 June

We have also added a brand new collection of mood-boosting books for our users. This collection includes poetry, novels, essays and more, picked  from a list suggested by the Reading Agency. Keep an eye out for the display in the Library, the mood-boosting books collection will be available for borrowing from 20 June 2016.

Some of the items in our new mood-boosting books collection

What books do you read for rest and relaxation? If you’re on Twitter, use #sgulwellbeing to let us know on Twitter . If you enjoyed a book from the book trolley we’d love to hear your comments.

Schizophrenia – updated systematic review in Clinical Evidence

The Schizophrenia systematic review in Clinical Evidence has been updated, highlighting some of the major shortcomings of available trials in this field and an astonishing lack of supporting evidence for some treatment options. An essential read not just for practitioners of evidence-based mental health but also researchers and research funders in the field.

For onsite access click here

For offsite access click here – SGUL users login via Shibboleth, NHS users login via Athens.