More homeless, mentally ill seeking shelter in libraries

More homeless, mentally ill seeking shelter
in libraries
(June 2009 Issue)

By Catherine Robertson Souter

The public library system got its start in the U.S. in the early 1800s and, by the turn of the next century, libraries had spread to nearly every community in the country. The concept of a learning space where everyone would be welcome took off in a young country dedicated to an "all are created equal" philosophy.

This open door policy has created a dilemma for libraries in recent years. With the drive to deinstitutionalize mental health care, many libraries (and other public spaces) have found themselves on the front line of community care, whether they are prepared to be there or not.

The Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), a national non-profit dedicated to eliminating barriers to treatment of severe mental illness, claims that pushing people out of hospitals without a sufficient increase in community-based care has left many mentally ill clients to struggle on their own. Daycare shelters can be unsafe or overcrowded or simply not readily available, which leads many mentally ill, especially those who are homeless, to spend their days in libraries.

"The fact that libraries remain a safe haven from violence and life on the streets is a sad commentary," says E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., the founder of TAC and executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, in a release. "Doing so devalues human life and the importance of libraries in our communities."

After reading an anecdotal story that ran in the Los Angeles Times in 2007, Torrey decided to do a more formal study to assess the problem. Using a questionnaire format, he and the other study authors, Rosanna Esposito, the interim executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center and Jeffery Geller, M.D. of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, gathered information from 119 librarians in 31 states.

Librarians responded to questions about patrons who displayed certain markers of mental illness, including "individuals who appear to be talking to themselves (hearing voices) and/or behaving or talking in a very strange manner." The librarians answered six questions on the survey about their dealings with mentally ill patrons, if security had become an issue and if other patrons were adversely affected by their behavior.

The study found that 42 percent of respondents felt that there were more mentally ill patrons now using the library; 61 percent felt that these patrons utilized a disproportionate amount of staff time and resources; and 92 percent felt that they disturbed other patrons or otherwise affected their use of the library.

Comments made on the survey showed a larger number of issues in urban libraries and the need to ensure that all patrons have access to the public space - both those who had mental illness and those who did not. The concern is that people with illness should not be discriminated against but that other patrons should feel safe in visiting the library as well.

"Most libraries want to be welcoming but they are caught between a rock and a hard place," Torrey explained in a telephone interview. "They want to welcome everyone but when they become almost exclusively a day program, clearly that's not what libraries set out to do."

Torrey and his team hope that studies like this one will help illuminate the need for better community care. "Our ultimate goal is to reform the mental health care system," he says, "not to reform libraries."