The Devon Book Prescription Scheme has been developed for use across Devon. This is a collaboration between the library services within Devon – Plymouth, Torbay and Devon – the University of Plymouth and several of the Devon primary care trusts.

The scheme is based upon the Cardiff Book Prescription Scheme (see Frude, 2004) and adopts many of the self help book titles adopted by them, with a few additions. A development of the Devon scheme beyond that in Cardiff however is that within selected GP’s practices, self help can be supported by specially trained health professionals. The support for self help would generally involve an initial consultation to help client’s better understand their psychological/ emotional difficulty and receive a tailored prescription for one of the many self help books. Clients would then also receive three further brief appointments with the health professional, who would offer clients support, problem solving and motivation whilst they are using the book.