What's Up With Alex (WUWA)? Animated Storytelling for Mental Health Literacy Among Young People

这项合作研究将检验阿德曼动画公司制作的动画故事是否能帮助年轻人建立对心理健康挑战的认识和应对。通常，年轻人在心理健康方面面临多重重大障碍。他们可能不知道自己首先需要帮助，也不知道在哪里可以获得支持。虽然这样的受众可能情商高，但他们可能缺乏心理健康知识和资金来获得及时的帮助——这在面临非常紧张的时期（例如考试期间）是非常重要的。正是在这种情况下，年轻人很难抽出时间寻求帮助。我们的核心问题是：共同创作的动画故事和配套应用程序能否提高年轻人的心理健康素养？这项研究为人权委员会支持的健康人文项目组合增加了一个新的层面，与其新的战略发展计划中的两个方面保持一致并架起桥梁：a)支持精神卫生研究，将其作为一项跨学科的当代挑战；b)探讨艺术和人文研究如何支持创造力和创意经济。在这样做的过程中，它汇集了世界一流的动画、健康、艺术和人文学科方面的专业知识，以及一个科学、社会和行为评估层，旨在推动与支持年轻人心理健康素养的法定和第三部门组织有关的政策、规定和实践方面的变革影响。我们的首席合伙人阿德曼在电影动画领域有着辉煌的历史，赢得了许多重要奖项和提名，包括奥斯卡金像奖、金球奖、英国电影和电视艺术学院奖、安妮奖和许多其他奖项。阿德曼为自己制作的关于心理健康的短片而自豪，以提高文化素养，尤其是“分享橙色”（阿尔茨海默氏症研究英国），“布里斯托尔老龄化更好”（孤立和孤独），以及最近由斯蒂芬·弗莱旁白的“新心态”。这项拟议的工作计划将加强阿德曼通过动画讲故事提高心理健康素养的宏伟目标。讲故事就像呼吸空气一样是我们的一部分。事实上，我们是讲故事的动物。故事是帮助我们理解环境、经历和人际关系的关键。它们帮助我们建立和传达我们的身份，是我们自我的基石。此外，在一个复杂的、不确定的、变化的、看似矛盾的世界里，故事是唯一适合帮助我们导航的方式。故事和隐喻如何成为生活的核心，如何帮助人们解决心理健康问题，这一点越来越引起人们的兴趣。重要的是，故事还可以质疑、挑战和改变现有的权力关系，包括那些在医疗保健环境中占主导地位的权力关系。艺术和人文学科的创造性实践有可能改变人们的心理健康。事实上，我们可以把艺术和人文学科的创造性资源看作是一种附加的或影子的健康服务。然而，很少有研究证据表明动画故事和心理健康素养有关。我们需要更清晰和有力的证据来证明对年轻人的潜在影响。随着年轻人精神压力的负担日益加重，加上提供服务的成本不断上升，现在是时候调查动画故事如何在促进年轻人心理健康素养方面发挥作用，并帮助他们找到应对生活挑战的方法。

This collaborative study will examine whether animated stories produced by Aardman Animations can assist young people in building awareness of and responding to mental health challenges. Typically, young people face multiple and significant barriers regarding their mental health. They may be unaware that they need help in the first place or where to access support. While such an audience may be emotionally intelligent, they can lack both the mental health literacy and finances to access timely help - something highly valued when facing very stressful periods, for example, around examination times. It is at such points that young people struggle to allocate time to seek support. Our central question is: Can co-created, animated stories and companion app increase young people's mental health literacy? This study adds a new dimension to the portfolio of health humanities projects supported by the AHRC, aligning strongly with and bridging two streams in its new Strategic Development Plan: a) in supporting research on mental health as an interdisciplinary contemporary challenge; and b) addressing how arts and humanities research can support creativity and the creative economy. In so doing, it brings together expertise in world-beating animation, health and the arts and humanities alongside a scientific, social and behavioural evaluative layer that seeks to advance transformative impacts in policy, provision and practice relevant to statutory and third sector organisations supporting mental health literacy among young people. Our chief partner, Aardman, have a stellar history in film animation, winning numerous major awards and nominations including Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, Annie Awards and many others. Aardman has prided itself on creating short films on mental health to advance literacy, not least 'Share the Orange' (Alzheimers Research UK), 'Bristol Ageing Better' (Isolation and Loneliness) and, most recently, 'New Mindset', narrated by Stephen Fry. This proposed programme of work will strengthen a grand ambition at Aardman for advancing mental health literacy through animated storytelling.Telling stories are as much part of us as breathing air. Indeed we are storytelling animals. Stories are key in helping us understand our environment, our experiences and relationships. They help us build and convey our identities, the building blocks of our selves. Furthermore, in a complex, uncertain, changing and seemingly contradictory world, stories are uniquely suited for helping us to navigate our way through it. There is growing interest in how stories and metaphor are core to life and can help people negotiate mental health. Importantly, stories can also interrogate, challenge and transform existing power relationships, including those that predominate within healthcare contexts.Creative practices in the arts and humanities have the potential for transforming people's mental health. In fact, we can view creative resources from the arts and humanities as constituting a kind of additional or shadow health service. However, there is little in the way of research evidence for animated stories and mental health literacy. We need much clearer and robust evidence of potential impact on young people. With a growing burden of mental distress on young people combined with rising costs for the delivery of services, it is timely to investigate how animated stories could play their part in advancing mental health literacy among young people and helping them find ways to deal with life's challenges.