Libraries are becoming hubs for public health across the U.S.

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The mobile clinic is one of several health programs offered by libraries across the U.S.—from tiny rural town libraries to large urban systems. They offer fitness classes, food pantries, cooking classes, conversations about loneliness and mental health, and even blood pressure monitors that can be checked out just like books.

The public health programs leverage libraries’ reputation as sources of reliable information and their ability to reach people beyond formal healthcare settings. No money, insurance, language skills, or ID required, no limits on age. All are welcome.

Libraries are “the last true public institution,” said Jaime Placht, a health and well-being specialist at the Kansas City Public Library system in Kansas City, Missouri, which has a full-time social work team. “The library is a public health space.”

The Kansas City Public Library, along with Milwaukee and several others, is part of the American Heart Association’s Libraries with Heart program. Several Kansas City branches have blood pressure stations—which Placht said have been used 13,000 times—as well as take-home blood pressure kits that have been checked out nearly 100 times. The program started there about a year ago.

“We have patrons that say, ‘Because I used the blood pressure monitor at the library, I went and saw my physician for the first time in a long time,’” Placht said.

There is no local public health office in Jarrell, Texas, a small town between Austin and Waco. But there is a nonprofit library that can connect patrons to mental health help. It’s one of nine rural libraries in central Texas that receives funding from the St. David’s Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of the state’s largest health systems.

The public library in Smithville, Texas, which also gets money from the Libraries for Health program, stocks boxes of surplus food from area farmers and builds programs that help teens, older adults, and parents address isolation. The library’s peer support specialist has gone from working with four to five people a month to nearly 60 in the community southeast of Austin.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

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[Bookshelves at public library]

Nicki Jones (interview): “As a kid, I’ve always had a love for the library. My mother would take us on the bus and during the summertime and pick out books to read. It was a pastime, the library system. And so, you know, it’s always been dear to me.”

[Weights being lifted from floor]

[Exercise class]

Nicki Jones (interview): “And then when I started my fitness business to be able to come around full circle and service the community with fitness programs in the public library, you know, something kind of unheard of when we really started. I don’t know. It just, it feels great. I love serving my community.”

[Person lifting weights and squatting]

[Multiple people holding weights, squatting, and moving]

Nicki Jones (interview): “Because we are in nontraditional spaces where you mostly wouldn’t see a fitness class, you know, for people to be able to come in and take the class for free is is amazing.”

[People moving their arms and stretching]

[Class attendees and fitness instructor holding weights]

Jamie Placht (interview): “The overall goal is to first and foremost create healthier communities.”

[Person sticking hand in blood pressure machine]

Jamie Placht (interview): “You know we’re an institution of access. Anyone can walk into our libraries and receive services.”

[Blood pressure reading printing]

Jamie Placht (interview): “Libraries for the Heart is our partnership with the American Heart Association. What we’ve done with them is we’ve put blood pressure machines in all of our branch locations because, you know, they call high blood pressure the silent killer, because a lot of people don’t know until it’s too late.”

[Various information signs and booklets about measuring blood pressure]

Jamie Placht (interview): “I’m always saying this, but I think we’re the perfect partner for public health institutions or health in general, just because, you know, we have the demographic or the people that they want to serve and that, quite frankly, just need their services.”

[Various people doing squats and leg lifts]

Nicki Jones (interview): “That’s the beauty of being in the public library and being in the community. You know, the library system has always been one that meets the needs of a community.”

[People rotating arms]

[People completing weigh reps and squats]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

The related lesson for this video will be published next Tuesday.