Between Bibliotherapy and Psychoeducation at NYSPI

I have worked as the Patient and Family Librarian at New York State Psychiatric Instute for approximately two and a half years now. Many Psychiatric Institutions have a library. Not so many have as comprehensive a library/patient resource as the PFL (Patient and Family Library)
To understand what we do here at the PFL one needs to understand the concepts of bibliotherapy and psychoeducation and how these concepts are being worked into the offerings of the PFL.

So, what is bibliotherapy? Bibliotherapy is an old concept in library science.. In the US it is documented as at least 100 years old.. The basic concept behind bibliotherapy is that reading is a healing experience. It was applied to both general practice medical care especially after WWII, because the soldiers had a lot of time on their hands whle recuperating, and they felt that the reading was healing and helpful. In psychiatric institutions bibliotherapeutic groups flourished during this time. The books kept the patients busy, and they seemed to be good for their general sense of well being for a variety of reasons. Since then, pretty much a standard definition of bibliotherapy is, According to Merriam-Webster online, "the use of reading materials for help in solving personal problems or for psychiatric therapy."


What is psychoeducation? Psychoeducation is a newer concept than bibliotheraphy, briefly defined Psychoeducation is a form of mental health treatment that includes elements of illness-related education and group psychotherapy. A great deal of research has demonstrated that psychoeducation increases patients' knowledge and coping skills with regard to mental illness and significantly reduces relapse and rehospitalization rates (Lukens & McFarlane, In Press) So, the whole idea behind the psychoeducation and bibliotherapy at the PFL is that the patients will read, educate themselves about their particular problems, and gain insight and will hopefully be able to cope better with what they are struggling with.

What are psychoeducational materials at the Patient and Family Library? Psychoeducational materials in our library include: books, pamphlets, videos, periodicals, and web sites. Our target customer is the psychiatric patient, a caring family member, or someone who cares for someone with a mental illness. It is often the case that the patient is a "first break" who is still orienting themselves to the new realities of a serious mental disorder. The social work interns reach out to the patient units with videos from the library's collection to lead groups that spark insight and understanding in the patients who attend the groups. This insight can help the patient deal with the day-to-day vissitudes of institutional life. And, we hope that making it out of the hospital and successfully re-intergrating into the community is aided by the insight that the patients get through these experiences.

The books that the library carries have been specially chosen by the clinical staff and the librarian for their quality and utility in the patients' personal journey of self-discovery, with regards to their illness. The thing that makes this book collection special is that the books deal with psychiatric issues; however, they have generally been written for laypeople. So, they are comprehensible to someone with an 8th grade level of education. Yes, we have the Physican's Desk Reference and the DSM-IV TR as is fitting for any medical library.. but we also carry inspirational stories of people like the late Mental Health Advocate Ken Steele whose biography "The Day the Voices Stopped" chronicles the strange and facinating world of a man's 30 year journey to wellness.. It takes us from the heartbreaking day he learned he had schizophrenia, to the day that the voices in his head stopped by appropriate medicine, and he could re-integrate into society as a advocate for the mentally ill. Against Depression by Peter Kramer, the author of Listening to Prozac, is the most circulated book in the library bar none. Dr. Kramer's engaging and illustrative writing describing the demons that plague the depressed and a snapshot of the science that is known at this point.. is gripping. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar is the most popular novel in our library which deals with schizophrenia. I'm sure the popular movie which was loosely based on this novel helps its popularity. A Beautiful Mind is a classic story exploring the closeness between genius and insanity. It is a biography of John Nash, the man that would be hit by schizophrenia as a young man and he would also go on to receive a Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking work in applied mathematics. An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jameson is our most popular book regarding bipolar disorder. Again the closeness between the genius of a young doctor and her insanity is explored in a very real story. The reason I bring up schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder is because staticically those have been the most read about topics in our library. Also, psychoeducation books in Spanish are agressively collected because of the large hispanic population that the library is situated in. .

However, not everyone who is looking for information has the concentration to read a 100+ page book, so we have short, easily-read, authoritative psychoeducational pamphlets in English and Spanish from The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NARSAD, and NAMI NYS. We also have a good-sized current periodicals collection which has everything from mental health news, NAMI newsletters, institutional periodicals, and condition-specific periodicals.

Besides the space, the books, and the videos, the thing that ties together the Patient and Family Library library is its website. On the website there is an raison d'etre as to why the library exists, there is an online public access catalog hosted by librarycom.com, there is both a static (pdf) and a dynamic (php/MySQL) annotated video list of the psychoeducational videos, and there is a listing of some of the best mental health links in New York City. New York City has a wide range of services for the mentally disabled compared to smaller municipalities. To have a one-stop-shopping center for the best services in NYC is a useful resource for patients and their families.

There is always room to grow, and in the future years of the Patient and Family Library of New York State Psychiatric Institute will undoubtedly help people find better understanding of mental illnesses.