As well as supporting your professional development and clinical practice, your library service can help to support the health and wellbeing of you and your team. Whether it's borrowing some uplifting fiction to help you destress during your well deserved annual leave, or reading up on how best to manage challenging issues in or outside of the workplace, books can be important tools to boost and protect your wellbeing. Our service helps you to access these resources easily, without a financial cost.
Books from all the Leeds Libraries for Health sites can be borrowed by library members, no matter where they are based. To borrow books you will need to join your library. For any further information about how to borrow these books, contact your library service.
Book Clubs
We have a number of reading groups in the Leeds area that are great for a wellbeing break and to get to know people in your area.
- Leeds Community Healthcare Book Club - Further details on LCH intranet
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals - Shelf Indulgence Book Group
If you are not a member of either of these Trusts, you can also search for a book group in your area on the Reading Groups For Everyone Website or you can set up your own reading group with support of Leeds Public Libraries. Please visit the Leeds City Council website for further guidance.
Mood Boosting Books
Reading Well's Mood-boosting Books are a collection of uplifting titles, including novels, poetry and non-fiction. The books are all recommended by readers and reading groups.
View the Mood Boosting Books available across Leeds Libraries for Health.
Reading Well - Books on Prescription
The Reading Well Books on Prescription series help you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using self-help reading.
The books are chosen by health experts and people living with the conditions covered. Click on a link below to view the available titles on this topic.
- Common mental health problems
- Dementia
- Long-term conditions
- Young people’s mental health
- Children's mental health
You can also browse the full list of Books on Prescription recommended by Reading Well. You may be able to access those that we don't have available in Leeds Libraries for Health through your local public library.
Your Health Collection
Access, understand and use trusted health resources to live well and enjoy better health.
Health Education England (NHS) and The Reading Agency have worked in partnership to bring together the new ‘Your Health Collection’, to support users of health libraries to understand and manage their own health.
This collection of 10 books and 30 free online tools to support you to live well and enjoy better health were chosen by those working in healthcare, health information and knowledge and library specialists working in the NHS, in prisons, in public health and in Higher Education. The resources chosen are accessible, inclusive and reflect the diversity of society.
Supporting your wellbeing
Funding from Health Education England has enabled Leeds Libraries for Health to purchase a range of titles to support with specific aspects of staff wellbeing and challenges that our teams may face. Click on a link below to view the available titles on each topic:
Books for leisure
Support from Leeds Public Libraries
Beyond Leeds Libraries for Health, public library services are committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of the local population. With sites across the city, Leeds Libraries offer resources and support on a wide range of topics, including digital skills and language learning, as well as a huge range of fiction and non fiction for all ages.
Whether for yourself, team members or patients, you might find the support you need through your local library.
Library support for wellbeing initiatives
Our evidence search service can save you time. Our librarians carry out expert searches of academic and informal literature from healthcare databases and a wide range of online sources. If you need to gather evidence to inform a wellbeing initiative or support a business case with statistics and research, you can request an evidence search.
Or, if you would like to promote resources around a specific wellbeing topic for your team, why not contact your library and see if we can support you to highlight the right online resources and books to make sure information is as accessible and reliable as possible.