Opening access to health care resources

The Center Moriches Free Public Library has recently partnered with the Public Libraries of Suffolk County to release the Stony Brook Medicine Healthy Libraries Program (SBMHeLP).

The program allows a unique group of health care professionals and graduate-student interns from the fields of social work, public health, nursing, nutrition, and library science to work together to provide access to both in-person and virtual health care-related resources for public library patrons throughout Suffolk County.

The partnership, library director Marcie Litjens explained, seeks to enhance the health and well-being of Suffolk County residents through library programming, collection development, and dissemination of information on current health topics impacting the community. The program is supported in part by the American Heart Association of Long Island.

“The healthy library program is basically meant to provide resources that can enhance the health and well-being in the community,” said Valerie Lewis, liaison for Suffolk County Libraries. “The main goal was to really impact people’s health by checking their blood pressure and teaching people how to do self-monitoring.”

 However, she noted that the program is not meant to substitute visiting a medical physician, but rather to help empower patrons to self-monitor their health.

“It’s a very wonderful program,” she added.

The program will relaunch this fall in Center Moriches for the second year in a row as one of only eight libraries in Suffolk County. Last year, Litjens said, the program was very successful.

“The Healthy Libraries Program will be back at our library this fall,” said Litjens. 

On Sept.20, Oct. 4, Oct. 18 and Nov. 1, from 2 to 4:30 p.m., interns from the HeLP program will be available at the CM Library for more information. No appointment is necessary and all are welcome.

“We were also part of the pilot program to circulate blood pressure cuffs to the public,” Litjens said, proud of their offerings. “This program proved to be very successful and is now expanded to other Suffolk County libraries.”

The library will also be hosting their fourth social worker intern this fall. Miranda, the intern, will be available beginning mid-September, every Tuesday and Thursday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., to assist with emergency shelter, family matters, and food assistance. This is not for counseling services. To schedule an appointment please call the reference desk at 631-878-0940 ext. 5.  All are welcome and all information is confidential.

One-on-one appointments:

Do you or a loved one need help: finding resources in your community, finding reliable health information, filling out paperwork for social services, finding housing? Do you have questions about medications or a health problem? Would you like to talk with someone? You can meet virtually with students training in public health, nursing, and social work. The Stony Brook Medicine Healthy Libraries Program (SBMHeLP program) can help with all of these topics. SBMHeLP is a partnership between Stony Brook Medicine and the Public Libraries of Suffolk County. To schedule a one-on-one appointment, please email healthy_libraries_program@stonybrookmedicine.edu.

Intern with Stony Brook Medicine Healthy Libraries Program

Students will be placed in public libraries (virtually) as a public health intern as part of an interdisciplinary team. The student would be investigating what the needs of patrons are in reference to the social and behavioral determinants of health, preparing educational materials, and assisting with learning outcome assessments. The team consists of nursing, social work, public health, and library science students. The team works together to address public library patrons’ needs by offering health information, referrals to social service providers, and case management. Students will be responsible for gathering resources and creating presentations, partaking in trainings, and assessment activities. The internship could develop into a practicum, but that is not required for participation.

Public health students will be supervised by Dr. Benz Scott, MPH program director. Interested students must be available during the day hours on Tuesdays in order to participate with the team on fieldwork days (virtually).

If you are interested in being a part of the program and making an impact on local communities, please contact Dr. Benz Scott at: lisa.benzscott@stonybrook.edu.

For more information about the HeLP program visit: https://publichealth.stonybrookmedicine.edu/healthy_libraries_program.