By Emma Weiss
Health Literacy Grant
Several groups are hoping both adult and children’s books can help people in the Plymouth and North Shore community learn how to deal with overcoming and confronting mental health problems.
A Health Literacy Library is launching in Plymouth County thanks to the South Shore Community Partners in Prevention, the New England Regional Medical Library, the National Library of Medicine, and the Outreach Services Department.
Katie Rayner, a recent Stonehill graduate who majored in Criminology and Communications, is the project coordinator for the Health Literacy Program.
Health literacy is defined as the ability to obtain, read, understand, and use healthcare information in order to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment.
Rayner said the district attorney’s office initially planned on developing a physical library, but “shifted focus more towards an online library to reach a wider audience.”
“It is extremely important for families in Plymouth County to have access to health literacy because it provides resources and tools for families that are struggling. By providing free eBooks to families, it will give them the tools to learn resiliency and coping mechanisms and provide resources for their families,” Rayner said.
The library includes novels on well-being topics, including the long-term effects of children adversity, healing of trauma, seeking empathy, and understanding addiction.
Rayner said one of the best parts of the online library is that there are multiple children’s books so they can gain perspective on well-being and mental health.
The library includes six books by children’s author Julia Cook, a former teacher and school counselor. Cook’s children’s books use humor to help them solve problems, use better behavior, and develop healthy relationships. The books are titled, “What to do when your life STINKS!” “But It’s Not My Fault,” “I Just Don’t Like the Sound of No!” “Well, I Can Top That!” “Teamwork Isn’t My Thing, and I Don’t Like to Share,” and “I Just Want to Do It My Way!”
Professor Pamela Kelley, chair of the criminology program at Stonehill College, said these types of initiatives are critical for communities with limited resources.
Kelley said it is important to talk with children about mental health.
“Especially now with the pandemic, children are being affected by these topics more than ever before. Many are not even in school so the ‘guardians’ they are used to, such as teachers and counselors, are not available. They are isolated in homes where some of these issues may be manifested. Unfortunately, children face the realities of substance abuse disorder and mental illness in their own homes on a frequent basis. Having something like this Health Literacy Library available online will allow children to easily access this information and learn about these topics even though they may not be in a traditional classroom at this time,” Kelley said.
According to The Health Literacy of America’s Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 80% of adults with a basic literacy level got information about health issues from books or brochures. 40% of adults with a basic literacy level got information about health issues from the internet, with that increasing to 60% for adults with an intermediate literacy level and doubling to 80% from the basic literacy level to the proficient literacy level.
For adults obtaining their information from books or brochures, this figure went up to about 90% for adults who had both intermediate and proficient literacy levels.
“The Consumer Health Resource Center at Plymouth Public Library provides easy-to-understand, reliable and trustworthy information on a variety of medical and health topics,” said Tom Cummiskey, the South Shore outreach librarian. “It will lead to increased health literacy and better health outcomes for all.”
Cummiskey hosts Zoom meetings for community groups about the initiative, focusing mainly on the senior population, since the world has had an abrupt switch to having everything online since the pandemic.
Cummiskey also spoke with several groups, including mental health organizations, children at-risk groups, disease specific organizations, Alzheimer’s groups, diabetes groups and cancer support groups.
Professor Kelley said funding for these programs usually come from grants.
“Grant funding in general is the only way our urban cities have to implement innovative strategies to assist citizens…without grant funding many critical services and strategies would either cease to exist or never get the opportunity to even begin,” she said.
On this particular grant, Kelley said, “this initiative is important because it focuses on issues that every town and city in America is facing right now, mental health, substance-use disorder, and adverse childhood experiences…they are all intertwined with each other. Mental health and substance abuse have a direct correlation and have far reaching effects including harming the children that are growing up in households affected by these issues.”
According to the press release on the grant, every family in Plymouth County is eligible to use this library. The library is simple to use and can be used with any access to internet or smartphone.
Rayner, Cummiskey and Kelley all believe that having a knowledge base available online about topics like this can certainly help prevent crime, future addiction, or a troublesome relationship with one’s mental health.
“This is a great idea that I would certainly promote in other locations as well. It is a simple, innovative idea to get knowledge into the hands of the people that need it in our communities,” Kelley said.
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