May is Mental Health Month
By: Jennifer Harmon
One in five Americans have a mental illness and it affects many members of our community. The purpose of Mental Health Month is to bring awareness to mental health, educate, start conversations, and reduce the stigma associated with mental illness. The City of Fishers has launched an initiative to help reduce stigma and bring attention to mental health challenges that exist in the community. The movement is called Stigma Free Fishers and more information can be found here. Part of the Stigma Free pledge is to learn more about mental health. Not sure where to start? The library has some resources for you.
Find out more about the pledge here.
The library has a section of books on a wide variety of mental health topics. We have informational books for people wanting to learn more about an aspect of mental health. We have memoirs by people with various mental illnesses for those wanting to learn what it’s like to have a condition. In addition to these books, we often have books written for those whose friends and loved ones experience mental illness to help them better understand what their loved one is going through and how to help. Between the Dewey decimal numbers of 616.85 and 616.89, you can find books dealing with anxiety, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and much more. Can’t find the book you are looking for? Ask one or our librarians and we will be happy to try to track down a copy of it for you.
Online, we have access to the Health & Wellness Resource Center. This is available through our homepage, under “Resources”, then “Online Databases”. You canenter the name of a mental illness (or any health condition) and have access to reference articles, recent magazine articles, audio files, news, and academic journals, and more.
The Indiana State Library has a site called Indiana Inspire that has several health and medicine-related databases where you can find more information about general and mental health, including Consumer Health Complete, Medline Plus, the Health & Wellness Resource Center, and Health Source – Consumer Edition.
For more information on mental health, the following resources may also be helpful:
Whether you choose to read a book or explore online resources, you can learn more about mental health any of these resources.