Clare Shemilt

Biography

I have worked in my present role since November 2000 and during that time experienced an organisation change from Education and Training Consortium to Workforce Development Confederation and most recently integration with the Strategic Health Authority.  I am responsible for overseeing the delivery of the Birmingham and Black County (BBC) Library strategy and working as a project manager/co-ordinator with the BBC Locality Library services.

Prior to taking up the post at the SHA I spent 5 years working in Healthcare Libraries with positions at South Birmingham Mental Health NHS Trust and Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust.

Abstract - Mental Health Librarians join forces to improve library services for Psychiatry in the West Midlands

The presentation will outline the work carried out by a programme improvement group of West Midlands Mental Health Librarians to improve access to knowledge resources and library services for Psychiatry and Mental Health services in the region and to develop the specialist knowledge of the Mental Health Librarians.

Why a Psychiatric Libraries improvement programme?

• The Library Accreditation process has shown that psychiatry based library services are in the lower half of quality

• There has been a low level of investment in Psychiatric libraries and these tend to be under resourced.

• There has been a poor uptake of training programmes in information searching by psychiatry trainees.

The task group has been supported by the West Midlands Psychiatry Specialist Training Committee and has scoped a vision for library and knowledge access for psychiatry and identified models of library service delivery to address this vision.  

Developing the role of the Mental Health Librarian

The programme group not only works as a project / task group but also as a learning forum for the Librarians.   In order to understand the information and education needs of psychiatry and mental health professionals, the group has met with different representatives of the West Midlands Psychiatry Specialist Training Committee.

Mental Health libraries are small and often run by solo librarians.   The role of the clinical librarian which is very topical in acute trusts has been discussed by the group in the context of mental health services and the presentation will highlight some of the innovative work carried out within the region to support evidence based medicine in mental health.

What kind of work has been carried out over the last 2 years?

• A website and paper based leaflet to resources in Mental Health

• Electronic books – Key Psychiatry textbooks for MRPscych Trainees have been purchased

• Knowledge Discovery Programme – This is a programme which has been developed by the West Midlands Library Services Development Unit for staff working in mental health and primary care who have a “knowledge worker” aspect of their job, such as clerical and administrative staff who may be asked to search for information by consultants or providing information to patients.   This course is accredited by the Open College Network (OCN) and enables staff to gain effective information seeking skills.   These staff also provide a good liaison between community mental health services and the library service.

The presentation will concentrate on existing work and ongoing developments. It will outline the work being carried out in the West Midlands and highlight some of the learning outcomes for the local mental health librarians.

This page was last updated on: 27 July, 2004