Adolescent Mental Health

The challenge 

Effective responses to the serious levels of poor mental health in adolescence has faced several challenges. Research has often failed to reach and include the experiences of marginalised, diverse and vulnerable adolescents in meaningful ways. The traditional psycho-medical framework of mental health has limited our concepts, understanding and responses to youth mental health needs. Structural, disciplinary and methodological barriers have limited collaboration between arts, sciences and youth perspectives which could catalyse fresh insights and meaningful action. 

The Creative Health approach 

This project invited ‘third space’ thinking and working, seeking to emancipate the project team into interdisciplinary research and to listen in new ways to lived experience experts. Creative Workshops and Living Labs brought together diverse young people, scientists and arts researchers to co-develop methods, interpretations and resources. Creative practices such as music, theatre, dance, painting, filming, photography and animation were used as invitations into doing research differently in the pursuit of youth-led knowledge. Creativity was positioned as an invitation to young people and researchers to work in equitable partnership. 

Collaboration and partnerships 

Projects involved the collaboration between young people (10-24y), schools, parents and carers, arts practitioners, the third sector and interdisciplinary researchers spanning the arts and humanities, psychiatry, health economics, digital health, psychology, epidemiology and public health.  

Young people involved consistently and authentically from project ideation through to project completion and policy action. 

Impact and outcomes 

• Development of trauma-informed, ethical, neuroaffirmative and relational arts-based methods for youth mental health research 
• New insights on the ways community arts programs function to secure wellbeing benefits for young people 
• Co-designed digital and public mental health resources   
• Co-production of toolkits to support youth-art-science collaboration in mental health research 
• Creation of resources to support interdisciplinary, youth-informed research 
• Advocacy and policy campaigns 

What's next

Expansion of the CREATE resource hub and progression to larger-scale evaluations, with opportunities for collaboration across education, health and policy sectors. 

People and affiliations 

Lead academics:
Professor Siobhan Hugh-Jones, School of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine and Health 

Professor Paul Cooke, School of Languages Cultures and Societies, Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Humanities