KEEP ON KEEPING ON: Follow-On to Building Resilience by developing arts-based resources to reduce young people's depression and anxiety (MR/S03580X/1)

Despite its Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan (2013), the WHO reported in 2020 on the "worldwide failure to provide people with the mental health services they need, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting a growing need for mental health support" (WHO 2020). There is massive inequality related to the allocation of mental health resources in high- and low-income countries; due to the scarcity of financial and human resources, young people in Latin America rarely receive formal treatment for depression and/or anxiety (Rathod et al. 2017). However, despite the accumulated and ongoing adversity, and the lack of formal mental health care, 50-60% of young people in Latin America experience symptomatic recovery within one year (Stapinski et al. 2013, March et al. 2004).

This Follow-On arises from a unique opportunity to bring OLA's ('Building Resilience' MR/S03580X/1) collaborative research on depression and anxiety amongst young people living in urban areas of Bogotá (Colombia), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Lima (Peru) to new audiences, using art and technology. For over two years, medical researchers in the UK and Latin America have worked together with arts organisations and young people to explore ways that participatory arts practices can usefully be understood as a resource that can support young people to build resilience and overcome depression and anxiety, specifically in contexts where accessing mental health services are neither a practical option nor a priority. The findings to date demonstrate that young people commonly report music, painting, drawing, dance and creative writing as being art forms/activities/processes that strengthen their relationships, affirm their sense of identity and build connections to social support systems and identities. An increased sense of political agency, an opportunity for psycho-social exploration, the promotion of values-based engagement and the development of rich artistic expression emerged as strong factors for participants in the workshops in Bogotá, Lima and Buenos Aires, which revealed the complexity of how the arts build mental health resilience for young people. It is now crucial that the voices and experiences of young people, the ultimate beneficiaries of initiatives, take a central role in the development and implementation of policies, interventions and activities to improve their mental health.

Collaboration with young people, arts organisations and policy-makers is at the centre of this project; a response to our partners' desire to continue to use arts-based methods to foreground their data and stories with their own wider communities, local governments, national authorities and international networks. Specifically, this Follow-On project places young people centre stage so that they have the necessary skills to advocate for and influence policy discussions about their mental health resilience and recovery. Young Ambassadors (16-24 year olds) with a history of activism will engage with the OLA research, and design, curate and facilitate creative conversations with policy-makers, ensuring that their urgent and consequential discoveries impact the development of mental health services. The programme will also bring together a network of partners, young people, arts organisations, stakeholders and policymakers from across Latin America, to develop a practical toolkit of arts-based mental health resources to share across the region and beyond. Young Ambassadors and artists from partner organisations will also co-produce public installations in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Lima, and online, which, alongside a bilingual communications campaign, will engage diverse local and international audiences with the original research findings about arts and young people's mental health.