Lawrence Memorial Hospital to have wellness resource center at new public library

The new Lawrence Public Library will have numerous features, from a video game area to a recording studio to a coffee bar. Lawrence Memorial Hospital announced Wednesday that it will have one more: a health-and-wellness resource center.

Called LMH Health Check, the area on the library’s first floor will offer monthly health screenings, an automatic blood pressure machine and reference materials. A librarian with a master’s degree in health education will be available to answer questions. The center will be part of the expanded library at Seventh and Vermont streets when it opens July 26.

A few years ago, the library contacted LMH about the wellness resource center, and the two entities have been planning it since, seeking input from community partners on what the center should include.

“Our vision has been to put together each month in 2015 a topic of the month,” Aynsley Anderson, community education coordinator at LMH, told the hospital’s board of trustees at its monthly meeting Wednesday. “Like for stroke month, the library might have a stroke-related book of the month, invite a stroke survivor and neurologist to talk and have displays about strokes.”

LMH will also be moving some of its health education courses, likely including the Build Your Village postpartum support group and the Stepping On fall prevention class, to the library’s larger meeting spaces.

LMH funded the resource center through a $50,000 donation to the library’s capital campaign.