Patient/Family Resource Center Launched at WPIC Library
While clinicians play an essential role in educating patients about diagnoses and treatments, patients often seek out additional health information on their own. HSLS has long been involved in providing such consumer health information, through the UPMC Shadyside Hopwood Library and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC Family Resource Center. Now, HSLS has launched a new collection where patients and their families can turn for information about behavioral health issues, written in easy-to-understand, non-clinical language.
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) Library’s new Patient/Family Resource Center provides consumer-level resources to help meet the information needs of inpatients, outpatients, and their families. The center is conveniently located on the first floor of the WPIC Library, adjacent to the reference area. Information appropriate for children, adolescent, adult, and geriatric populations is available. Books in this collection may be borrowed after registering at the library with a photo ID or address verification. Videos may be viewed in the library. HSLS librarians are on duty to assist consumers with information requests Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., or confidential information request forms can be completed at any time.
WPIC clinicians and staff are urged to refer patients and their families to the center. To further this effort, caregivers are encouraged to "prescribe" behavioral health care information to their patients through the use of "information prescriptions." The library plans to distribute Information Rx pads to WPIC clinicians via campus mail. Caregivers are asked to write out an Information Rx for patients or family members to bring to the library. These can be used to literally spell out the name of behavioral health conditions or treatments, so the librarian can more readily identify the patient’s specific information need.
--Rebecca Abromitis
