Creative Practice As Mutual Recovery: Connecting Communities for Mental Health and Well-Being

这项高度合作的研究旨在研究艺术和人文学科的创造性实践如何促进各种联系和互惠，从而在心理健康和福祉方面支持“相互恢复”。“相互康复”的概念更广泛地延伸出精神保健中影响日益扩大的“康复”概念，它指的是不论精神健康“症状”或残疾如何，都有可能实现有意义、更有弹性和自力更生的生活。然而，以康复为基础的举措通常只侧重于被确定为有精神健康需求的人（服务使用者），而忽视了在这一领域工作的压力很大的非正式护理人员和保健、社会护理和成人教育人员在其自身的精神健康和福祉方面也可能需要“康复”或被“康复”。我们的核心假设是，创造性实践可以成为一种强大的工具，将各种各样的社会行动者和实践社区聚集在一起，以相互或互惠的方式建立和连接它们，以增强心理健康和福祉。这种方法与Murray（2012）提出的“新互惠浪潮”是一致的，其标志是“对合作的新兴趣”（第1页），加强了不同或独立的人群或机构之间的联系和分享，以及“用户、社区和工人参与的不同方式”（第7页）。艺术和表达疗法在精神卫生服务中已经确立，创造性实践（例如视觉艺术、音乐、戏剧、讲故事等）在促进这方面的相互康复方面具有明显的潜力。研究已经证明了艺术对“康复导向的心理健康服务”的重要性，它们如何提供打破社会障碍的方式，表达和理解经验和情感，并帮助重建身份和社区。随着精神疾病负担日益加重，加上提供服务的成本不断上升，现在是时候调查有精神健康需求的人、非正式护理人员和保健人员、社会护理人员和成人教育人员如何利用新的机会建立相互欣赏和实质性联系的社区——相互希望、信任、同情、平等和团结的复原性社区。这项为期五年的研究将为现有的由美国人权理事会资助的健康人文学科项目增加一个新的维度。其以艺术和人文学科为主导的实质性一揽子工作方案包括一个社会科学评估层，旨在推动政策、规定和实践方面的变革性影响。作为一个“灯塔”，它将把艺术和人文科学、社会和健康科学的研究人员以及支持有心理健康需求的人的第三部门和法定部门组织联系起来，以产生新的社会和文化联系形式，促进心理健康的恢复。与互联社区精神相一致，本研究的中心主题是共享社区价值观的贡献和参与这一相互恢复议程，以及“共同产生”自力更生和恢复力的方式，以支持社区环境中的心理健康和福祉。因此，这一雄心勃勃的多学科研究计划将通过在学术和伙伴社区之间建立新的联系，以加强研究参与、繁荣、可持续性以及健康和福祉，来实现AHRC互联社区的愿景。

This highly collaborative study aims to examine how creative practice in the arts and humanities can promote the kinds of connectedness and reciprocity that support 'mutual recovery' in terms of mental health and well-being. The idea of 'mutual recovery' extends more inclusively out of the increasingly influential notion of 'recovery' in mental health care which refers to the possibility of achieving a meaningful, more resilient and self-reliant life irrespective of mental health 'symptoms' or disabilities. Typically, however, recovery-based initiatives tend to focus exclusively on people identified as having mental health needs (service users) and overlook how hard-pressed informal carers and health, social care and adult education personnel working in this field may also need to 'recover' or be 'recovered' in terms of their own mental health and well-being. Our central hypothesis is that creative practice could be a powerful tool for bringing together this diverse range of social actors and communities of practice, to establish and connect them in a mutual or reciprocal fashion to enhance mental health and well-being. Such an approach is congruent with 'the new wave of mutuality' identified by Murray (2012), marked by 'renewed interest in co-operation' (p.1), enhancing connections and sharing between distinct or separate groups of people or institutions and 'different ways of involving users, communities and workers' (p.7).Arts and expressive therapies are well-established in mental health services and creative practice (e.g. in visual arts, music, drama, storytelling and so on) has demonstrable potential for a role in advancing mutual recovery in this context. Research has already demonstrated the importance of the arts for 'recovery orientated mental health services', how they provide ways of breaking down social barriers, of expressing and understanding experiences and emotions, and of helping to rebuild identities and communities. With a growing burden of mental ill-health combined with rising costs for the delivery of services, it is timely to investigate how people with mental health needs, informal carers and health, social care and adult education personnel can take new opportunities to build mutually appreciative and substantively connected communities - resilient communities of mutual hope, trust, compassion, equality and solidarity. This five-year study will add a new dimension to existing AHRC-funded health humanities projects. Its substantive arts and humanities led programme of work packages incorporate a social sciences evaluative layer that seeks to advance transformative impacts in policy, provision and practice. Acting as a 'beacon', it will link researchers in the arts and humanities, social and health sciences and third and statutory sector organisations supporting people with mental health needs, in order to generate new forms of social and cultural connectedness that can facilitate mental health recovery. Consistent with the Connected Communities ethos, central themes in this research are the contribution of shared community values and participation to this mutual recovery agenda and the ways in which self-reliance and resilience can be 'co-produced' to support mental health and well-being in community settings. Hence, this ambitious, multidisciplinary research programme will address the AHRC Connected Communities vision through establishing new connections between academic and partner communities in order to enhance research participation, prosperity, sustainability, and health & well-being.