Reading Well helps you to understand and manage your health and wellbeing using helpful reading.

 

The books are all endorsed by health experts, as well as by people living with the conditions covered and their relatives and carers. You can be recommended a title by a health professional, or you can visit your local library and take a book out yourself.

 

There are currently five book lists available:

 

• Reading Well for Mental Health
• Reading Well for Dementia
• Reading Well for Teens
• Reading Well for Children
• Reading Well for Families

 

Several of the lists feature titles from the Overcoming series or published elsewhere by Little, Brown Book Group.

 

Partners

 

Reading Well is delivered by The Reading Agency in partnership with Libraries Connected as a core delivery partner for their Universal Public Library Health and Wellbeing Offer. It is funded by Arts Council England, The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and Welsh Government.

 

Evidence and evaluation

 

There is a huge evidence base around the value of reading to support health and wellbeing, as well as the value of libraries as a non-stigmatised space that is both welcoming and empowering for people with mental health problems.

 

The Reading Well programme is evaluated each year to ensure that it continues to deliver positive outcomes. Health professionals, library staff and users are surveyed on their experiences of the programme, as well as information on reach being calculated through book loans and book sales data. Over 4.3 million Reading Well books have been borrowed from libraries and 92% of people surveyed found their book helpful.