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

这项合作研究将考察Aardman动画制作的动画故事是否可以帮助年轻人建立对心理健康挑战的认识并做出回应。通常，年轻人在心理健康方面面临着多重而重大的障碍。他们可能不知道他们一开始就需要帮助，也不知道从哪里获得支持。尽管这样的观众可能在情绪上很聪明，但他们可能既缺乏心理健康素养，也缺乏获得及时帮助的财力--在面临非常紧张的时期时，例如在考试时间前后，这是非常宝贵的。正是在这种情况下，年轻人很难分配时间寻求支持。我们的中心问题是：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AHRC支持的卫生人文项目组合增加了一个新的维度，与其新的战略发展计划中的两个流紧密结合并架起了桥梁：a)支持将心理健康研究作为跨学科的当代挑战；以及b)阐述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，它将世界一流的动画、健康以及艺术和人文领域的专业知识与科学、社会和行为评估层结合在一起，力求在政策、提供和实践方面促进与支持年轻人心理健康扫盲的法定和第三部门组织相关的变革性影响。我们的首席合作伙伴Aardman在电影动画方面有着辉煌的历史，赢得了许多主要奖项和提名，包括奥斯卡奖、金球奖、BAFTA奖、Annie奖和许多其他奖项。阿德曼为自己创作了关于心理健康以提高识字率的短片而自豪，尤其是《分享橙色》(英国阿尔茨海默斯研究公司)、《布里斯托尔老龄化更好》(《孤独与孤独》)，以及最近由斯蒂芬·弗莱解说的《新心态》。这项拟议的工作计划将加强阿德曼的雄心壮志，通过动画讲故事来提高心理健康素养。讲故事和呼吸空气一样是我们的一部分。事实上，我们是会讲故事的动物。故事是帮助我们了解环境、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，我们自我的基石。此外，在一个复杂、不确定、不断变化和看似矛盾的世界里，故事特别适合帮助我们导航通过它。人们越来越感兴趣的是，故事和隐喻是生活的核心，可以帮助人们谈判心理健康。重要的是，故事还可以审问、挑战和改变现有的权力关系，包括那些在医疗保健领域占主导地位的权力关系。艺术和人文领域的创造性实践有可能改变人们的心理健康。事实上，我们可以将艺术和人文的创意资源视为一种额外的或影子的健康服务。然而，几乎没有关于动画故事和心理健康素养的研究证据。我们需要更清晰、更有力的证据来证明对年轻人的潜在影响。随着年轻人精神痛苦的负担越来越重，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提高年轻人的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.