Health & Wellbeing
15
Keywords
Reading and health, bibliotherapy, literature and
medicine, arts in health, reading and mental health,
reading therapy, reading and language
Expertise
The University’s Centre for Research into Reading,
Information and Linguistic Systems (CRILS) allows
psychologists, medical and literary experts to work
together to understand the impacts that reading can
have on the health and wellbeing of global communities.
Researchers in literature, health, linguistics, psychology,
social anthropology and digital technologies, work
together on projects aimed at taking reading practices
into communities and healthcare professions.
Working with the national charity The Reader
Organisation, our experts provide research evidence
to show the value of community reading-groups,
to inform healthcare policy, and to help the medical
profession explore treatments that can be related to
the individual patient.
The Centre examines the value of shared reading at all
ages in a variety of health and community settings, from
looked-after children and pupils struggling in schools,
to young women prisoners who self-harm and to older
people in care homes and hospital wards.
Our work provides the evidence that reading enhances
language development and we work with partners to
develop reading-based language interventions.
Capabilities and facilities
•
Advice on practice and evaluation of reading
groups
•
Policy recommendations on the therapeutic value
of shared reading
•
Participatory community arts projects and events,
exploring the role of the arts in community
wellbeing.
Adult mental health organisations can use our
research as the basis for commissioning reading
groups. They can be organised in inpatient,
community and secure settings, as a humane,
inexpensive and effective intervention in a range
of clinical conditions and as a potential alternative
to more costly treatments.
Our evidence also supports local and social
services to set up shared reading groups to
build communities, promote inclusion and raise
aspiration among hard to reach groups.
Our research shows that reading with older people
with dementia can improve their wellbeing and
quality of life by enhancing listening skills,
attention, concentration and presentness;
facilitating meaningful social interaction; improving
both short-term and long-term memory; fostering a
sense of who one is in some continuity of relation
with who one has been. In our study, staff and
consultants expressed consistent support for the
intervention and its effect on patient care.
Children’s health, social and educational
services can consult and collaborate with the
Centre for Research into Reading, Information
and Linguistic Systems on the potential of shared
reading for pleasure to: influence language devel-
opment and child-parent attachment in early years;
foster social integration of bilingual children and
families; improve educational performance and
social mobility. We are working on developing
reading groups with children and parents, and
assessing the impact on language, literacy and
school achievement.
1.4
Personal development and health
Relevant centres and groups
•
Centre for Research into Reading, Information and
Linguistic Systems
•
The Reader Organisation
•
Child Language Study Centre.
Also see:
Society & Culture –
5.
Cultures and health, page 172
