Partnerships between libraries and high-impact community arts-health programs like Writers Collective of Canada are transforming how we provide care to ourselves and others.
A public library is ideally positioned to support the health and wellbeing of a community. Non-medical health interventions known as social prescriptions are emerging as a powerful modality; WCC’s program is one. Public libraries are already experienced in delivering many such interventions, having done so even before the term “social prescription” was well known.
Why social prescriptions? WCC founding Board member, Dr. Cal Gutkin, MD, explains: “Across Canada, it is estimated that 1 in 5 patients who present to family doctors’ offices and primary care settings are experiencing a significant mental health challenge. In my career as a family physician, one of the most common reasons that people sought medical help was for mental health challenges. A major component of anxiety and depression is a loss of self-esteem—the feeling that one’s identity and value to others is diminished. Ongoing studies are showing the benefit of non-medical social interventions in re-establishing one’s connections with both their inner selves and the world around them. Doing so provides a greater power to cope with and overcome underlying physical and mental-health challenges.”
Unfortunately, the health system resources needed to support those with mental-health challenges in Canada are insufficient. Yet for many years now, public libraries have enabled the delivery of critical social programming such as WCC workshops.
“WCC saved my life!” is a statement we hear often at WCC. While we are not a healthcare provider, our program is a proven social prescription. For individuals struggling with disconnection, loneliness, and the dehumanizing impacts of polarization and AI, WCC’s community writing program is a lifeline.
Since the early days of WCC in 2012, many underserved communities and individuals have accessed our innovative program in libraries. Every week, trained WCC volunteer facilitators around the country bring communities and strangers together in library branches to write, share, and listen to stories. They guide participants to release judgement, listen deeply, and embrace difference.
The recently announced partnership between Toronto Public Library (TPL) and University Health Network (UHN) to provide mobile primary care health clinics in that city is a significant step in creating an accessible continuum of care for the most vulnerable community members. As a long-time partner of TPL, Ottawa Public Library, Hazel McCallion Central Library in Mississauga, and other library systems across Canada, we at Writers Collective of Canada (WCC) can attest to the power of this accessible public infrastructure.
So far this year, WCC has facilitated 400+ library workshops in 35 branches across Canada. Funding from TD Bank Group (TD) is enabling us to expand this initiative and reach more individuals in a scalable manner, all thanks to local library infrastructure.
Even when healthcare resources are robust, those with the greatest need often cannot access primary care. Likewise, mental-health care too often slips through the cracks of a strained system. The public library is a no-barrier space where community can flourish, and library networks are innovative community service providers. Partnerships between libraries and high-impact community arts-health programs like WCC are transforming how we provide care to ourselves and others.