Libraries are offering free health and wellness classes across the US

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Aurora Health Care Mobile Medical Clinic team waited patiently at a table in the main hallway of the Milwaukee Public Library’s sprawling downtown branch, a blood pressure cuff and mental health questionnaire at the ready as they called out to patrons who paused: “Do you have any questions about your health?”

On this Tuesday afternoon, one man did. His joints were bothering him, he told Carolyn McCarthy, the team’s nurse practitioner. And he knew his bones need calcium to stay strong, so he stopped taking his blood pressure medication, a calcium channel blocker.

McCarthy talked with him at length in simple and specific terms about how the medication worked on his cells, why it was important to take and how it doesn’t affect calcium storage in his bones.

“Hopefully, he walked away a little bit more informed,” McCarthy said.

The mobile clinic is one of several health programs offered by libraries around 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 health care 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. The system 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 a 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.

Jarrell Community Library and Resource Center is a place for brave conversations. When a senior card game group turned to a discussion of the best crematorium in town, the library brought in local experts to teach about end-of-life planning, library director Susan Gregurek said. Last year, seven women came to the library for information on how to file restraining orders against their husbands.

“This is mental health, but it’s obviously larger than mental health," Gregurek said.

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 built out 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.

St. David's Foundation has invested more than $3 million in the program over three years, which Smithville library director Judy Bergeron said is key when she hears comments like, “Why are we funding the library so much? Nobody reads anymore.”

A year and a half into being in Milwaukee's libraries, mobile health clinic reaches eight patrons on average per visit. They've had some people come back to say they went to the hospital and got a life-saving treatment, McCarthy said. They’ve also had patients who did not seek help and later died.

“What we do is a Band-Aid on a broken (health care) system,” McCarthy said of the clinic.

Another library effort in Milwaukee teaches kids about healthy nutrition habits at the Mitchell Street branch — a weekly after-school program run by chef Sharrie Agee since 2022.

“Certain areas of Milwaukee don’t have the same opportunities to (access) healthy ingredients, healthy sources of food, the knowledge behind how to use those ingredients,” said Agee, whose class learns how to make snacks from different continents.

Four junior chefs helped her cut cheese and tomatoes for a pizza this month while she quizzed the rest of the attendees: What country is pizza from? What ingredients are listed on the recipe?

Ruby Herrera, 40, brought her children to help them learn to cook something healthy and try different foods. Her older kids cook everything in the air fryer.

Yareni Orduna-Herrera, 7, ran over to her mom, smiling, her task of slicing tomatoes complete.

She said she'll try the recipe home again and also wants to learn to make rice and beans. But first, she needed to taste the pizza.

“The one that I made,” she said with pride.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Chef Sharrie Agee prepares food as part of the Milwaukee Public Library’s Snack Hack program for kids on Nov. 19, 2024, Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)

A child raises his hand to answer a question asked by Chef Sharrie Agee at the Milwaukee Public Library’s Snack Hack program for kids on Nov. 19, 2024, Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)

Attendees of the after school nutrition program, Milwaukee Public Library Snack Hack, line up to get a slice of pizza made from scratch, Nov. 19, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)

A free blood pressure machine is used at the public library in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)

Attendees stretch during a fitness class at the public library in Kansas City, Mo., on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Nick Ingram)

Chef Sharrie Agee helps Yareni Orduna-Herrera slice tomatoes for a margherita pizza as part of the Milwaukee Public Library Snack Hack, an after school nutrition program that teaches kids how to make healthy meals at home, Nov. 19, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Devi Shastri)

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Voting in Namibia for a new president and parliament has been extended into the weekend by the electoral agency due to shortages of ballot papers, a move challenged by the main opposition which is alleging fraud.

The southern African country’s elections management body said polling stations that should have closed on Wednesday will now close on Saturday night after some ran out of ballot papers. The opposition Independent Patriots for Change party on Friday claimed that the extension is illegal.

Namibia’s electoral issues come as Mozambique is engulfed in violent unrest after the long-ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner of an election in October, prompting claims of vote rigging and sparking ongoing violent protests against the party.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Namibia's 72-year-old vice president and the ruling SWAPO party’s candidate for president, would become the largely desert country's first female leader if she wins.

But she faces stern opposition from a youthful population seemingly frustrated by lack of opportunities in a mineral-rich country rated by the World Bank as an upper middle income country, but also one of the globe’s most unequal

Elsie Nghikembua, chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia, said many people had failed to cast their ballots due to “logistical” challenges.

Many people were yet to vote on Friday afternoon, with long lines at polling stations visited by The Associated Press. Many remote rural polling stations were still waiting for ballot paper deliveries.

Electoral officials assured voters that ballot papers were on the way, but many were doubtful.

Nangombe Shitaleni, a registered voter waiting in a line at the Okandjengedi Community Center polling station, in northern Namibia, said he had failed to vote since Wednesday. He said he would give up if not served by Friday evening.

“I keep coming to the same place every day without being assisted. It’s like you are a mad person,” he said.

About 1.4 million people — around half the Namibian population — are registered to vote to decide the president and the makeup of parliament for a five-year term.

Namibia is a former German colony that came under South African control after World War I and its Black majority was later subjected to some apartheid policies. SWAPO was at the forefront of the battle for independence and has dominated politics since independence in 1990.

Previous elections have largely been regarded as credible, earning the country rich in minerals such as gold and uranium the title of being one of the most stable democracies in a continent where power transfer often involves disputed elections, force or even bloodshed.

SWAPO has governed Namibia and held the presidency for 34 years since independence. But there is frustration caused by high unemployment and economic hardship, especially among young people. It's a trend that has seen voters elsewhere in southern Africa this year reject parties that liberated their nations from colonial or white minority rule in favor of era-ending change to address new problems.

Namibia's vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization, (SWAPO) waves as she casts her vote in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Esther Mbathera)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)

Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Dirk Heinrich)