Arts4Us - Working Together to Scale up Place-Based Arts Initiatives that Support the Mental Health of Children and Young People

Lead Research Organisation: Edge Hill University
Department Name: Research

Abstract

Children and young people (CYP) are experiencing a significant mental health (MH) crisis that is threatening their future. Deeply rooted health inequalities perpetuate this crisis and call for immediate action. This project will promote easy access to best practice in local arts activities that support the diverse MH needs of CYP and thus enable them to take better control of their lives. By supporting the MH of CYP the project will meet an important NHS priority contributing towards tackling the health inequalities affecting their lives.

We will build on successes from Arts for the Blues (AH/W007983/1), a project that received funding from AHRC for phase one of this programme and successfully scaled up the use of an evidence-based creative psychological intervention in the North West. We will also draw on a track-record of 25+ years of engaging CYP in arts activities, and on our extensive co-production experience.

Co-creation will therefore become central to this work. We will focus on CYP aged 9-13, a group at significant risk of developing MH problems whilst transitioning from childhood to early adolescence. They will be encouraged to act as co-researchers developing skills they can use after the completion of the project, ensuring direct benefits.

We expect that co-creation will lead to meaningful engagement of CYP with this study that aims to generate new, scalable evidence concerning:

(A) how to access arts activities that best support the MH of CYP;

(B) how to evaluate arts activities that meet the diverse MH needs of CYP;

(C) how to maximise the benefit of arts activities for as many CYP as possible.

We will create a digital platform where evidence-based local arts activities will become easily accessible for CYP, their families, relevant organisations and services. We will do this by identifying good local arts practice that addresses the diverse MH needs of CYP, especially those who are often under-represented. Six CYP Creative Health Associates will be employed to work in areas with marked health inequalities and establish local collaborations between community partners and existing social prescribing link workers. They will also work with the research team to provide easy and sustainable access to arts activities and thus, bypass local barriers.

The active involvement of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) (e.g., Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Mersey Care), medical leads and medical directors of CYP's MH, NHS trusts, schools and community organisations will encourage collaboration within and across systems, enabling the development of an agreed evaluation framework of best practice in arts activities. This will support streamlining access to therapeutic uses of the arts as well as scaling up and adopting the outputs from the study in the North West and beyond.

Finally, we will develop and share the project outputs with our 46 non-academic national and international collaborators, making an active contribution towards tackling health inequalities that benefits the MH of CYP wherever they live.

People

ORCID iD

Vicky Karkou (Principal Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8986-956X
Michelle Howarth (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4521-024X
Megan Schmidt-Sane (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3669-7527
Daniel James Tyler-McTighe (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0004-3911-8708
Helen O'Keeffe (Co-Investigator)
Zarnie Khadjesari (Co-Investigator)
Nicola Smith (Co-Investigator)
Stephen Sandford (Co-Investigator)
Andy Smith (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9801-3982
Fei Chen (Co-Investigator)
Zoe Moula (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2554-0316
Marcello Trovati (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6607-422X
Nicola Hopson (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0009-2835-2888
Shaun Curtis (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0006-2219-7811
Anna Daly (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0007-4363-3739
Charles Tyrer (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0005-7683-863X
Mark Ashton (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0006-3491-0880
Natasha Ryan (Co-Investigator)
Julie Nicholson (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0000-8839-1066
Alexa Gooder (Co-Investigator)
Joanna Omylinska-Thurston (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8329-171X
Scott Thurston (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5326-593X
Jonathan Jones (Co-Investigator)
Afrah Qassim (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0008-9530-6278
Prathiba Chitsabesan (Co-Investigator)
Kathryn Fraser (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0006-7458-846X
Shaun Liverpool (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6419-8552
Sandeep Ranote (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0006-7552-8223
Ananda Breed (Co-Investigator)
Rachel Deadman (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0006-0649-5974
Duane Chong (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0007-3138-5600
Chris Hart (Co-Investigator)
Nusrat Husain (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9493-0721
Rebecca Ross-Williams (Co-Investigator)
Vicky Charnock (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0009-0007-7396-2525
Helen Thackray (Co-Investigator)
Rebecca Friel (Co-Investigator) orcid http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1398-9252

Publications

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