by Sara Luster ’19, Staff Writer
The Burke library has partnered with the Counseling Center to create an online catalogue for students seeking access to mental health resources. Photo courtesy of @HamiltonCollege on Twitter.
It is no secret that the Hamilton community has struggled with mental health issues over the past few years. In response to events like last year’s Town Hall and other calls for expanded access to mental health resources, the Counseling Center has joined forces with other departments at the College to promote mental health and wellness on campus.
“We want to make mental health resources available to as many students as possible,” says David Walden, Director of the Counseling Center. In order to reach the largest possible portion of the student body, Walden and the Counseling Center have partnered with the Burke Library and Technology Services (LITS) staff to make mental health resources more accessible. Walden has been working closely with Kristin Strohmeyer, Research and Outreach Librarian at the College, to add mental health resources to the College’s library catalog. According to Walden, there will be “books, work books, websites, and other electronic resources” available to students; these materials will cover topics such as self-help and skills to cope with stress and mental illness.
Figuring out how to best provide these materials has not always been easy. In the early stages of the project, Strohmeyer looked to other institutions to see how they incorporated mental health education into their libraries. “It was hard to find what other libraries were doing,” says Strohmeyer. “They had mental health classes and research, but nothing in the libraries.”
Strohmeyer and Walden decided to create a collection of mental health
resources from scratch, borrowing from books and websites previously recommended to clients at the Counseling Center. They also had to decide how to organize the resource collection in such a way that students would feel comfortable approaching the material. “We struggled with how to alert students of the new resources,” says Strohmeyer. “You can’t put them all in one spot, that’s not very anonymous.” The point of having library resources is to give students an immediate resource when they have concerns regarding a friend or their own mental health.
One solution Walden and Strohmeyer found to balance access and anonymity was to make the literary resources and websites available online. “One of the great things about the books is that many of them can be accessed online from the comfort of your room,” says Walden, adding that potential barriers to seeking help like embarrassment and uncertainty are virtually eliminated through the use of online resources.
As for the hard copy books and the rest of the collection, Walden says the Counseling Center has sent out an email with links to the resources, the library catalogue, and the Counseling Center services. Each semester, an updated list will be posted to remind the community of the resources available.
Regarding the librarians’ roles in promoting mental health, Strohmeyer stated: “Our primary role is to serve the needs of the Hamilton community.” She adds that Walden and the library staff are working hard to help as many students as possible.
In sum, Walden says, “The library [initiative] is part of the larger effort to promote mental health on campus. “When it comes to seeking sup-
port, I think having more resources is always better.”