Art at the Start: A research consortium exploring art-based intervention to support perinatal and infant mental health.

在动员文化和自然资产对抗健康不平等计划的支持下，“艺术起点”一直在苏格兰各地的艺术画廊提供艺术治疗和凌乱的游戏课程，以促进父母和0-3岁婴儿的健康和福祉。在我们的项目中，我们设法接触到那些传统上不去艺术画廊的家庭，并帮助那些难以与孩子建立联系的父母在共享艺术创作的背景下与孩子建立联系。我们通过问卷调查、访谈和对家庭互动的观察，证明了家庭幸福质量的积极变化，这些互动主要关注婴儿的经历。通过根据当地需求和人口统计数据进行调整，并特别寻求与服务不足的社区（少数民族、贫困人群、年轻母亲、婴儿）建立联系，我们积极打破了获得艺术的既定障碍。我们的项目被列为最佳公共卫生实践范例，并赢得了多项公众参与奖。我们的团队积极参与全英国支持婴儿心理健康的运动。NHS依靠社区空间来帮助他们为有幼儿的家庭提供第一线的支持，这些家庭正在为自己的健康而挣扎，但还没有资格获得紧急临床护理。然而，缺乏关于社区提供者和NHS利益相关者如何共同努力，有效和可持续地提供早期干预措施的指导。全英国的政府智囊团一致认为，在国民保健服务体系内，改善社区服务和婴儿及其家庭心理健康服务之间的联系是至关重要的，包括测试和评估未来服务发展的模式。给孩子最好的人生开端很重要，因为我们的父母教会我们如何与他人互动，他们提供的爱对我们发展学术和社会能力至关重要。糟糕的人生开端可能会代代相传，而早期干预提供了一种打破这种循环的方法。至关重要的是，由于早期关系和接触艺术都被证明对整个生命周期的健康和福祉具有保护作用，因此基于艺术的早期干预措施将对其所涉及的家庭的生活产生长期影响。这项拟议的研究反映了艺术为基础的方法是否可以嵌入艺术场所，作为英国婴儿心理健康提供的转诊途径，确保早期获得艺术的健康益处。我们建议将心理学、艺术治疗、艺术与健康、艺术教育和助产方面的学者与一系列非学术利益相关者聚集在一起，包括家庭、家庭艺术和支持组织、艺术画廊和NHS婴儿心理健康团队。在一名社区家长研究员和一名来自支持家长的慈善机构的参与官员的带领下，我们的目标是评估那些可能从社区嵌入式艺术和健康服务的健康和福祉结果中受益的家庭的经历和需求。在一个跨学科的学者和临床医生团队、一个家庭艺术组织以及来自艺术画廊、第三部门和NHS婴儿心理健康团队的代表的支持下，我们的研究团队将绘制出英国早期关系中现有的基于艺术的干预措施。来自苏格兰婴儿心理健康团队的两位临床医生的案例研究将有助于告知在NHS背景下嵌入此类服务的挑战。通过促进学术界、临床医生、家庭、文化组织、政府和NHS结构之间的跨学科和多学科网络之间的知识交流，我们的最终目标是共同制定一个研究“路线图”，以便在公共卫生服务中战略性地重塑文化资产，以心理健康为基础。

Art at the Start have been offering arts therapy and messy play sessions to promote the health and wellbeing of parents and 0-3 year old infants in art galleries across Scotland, supported by the Mobilising Cultural and Natural Assets to Combat Health Inequalities scheme. During our project, we have managed to reach families who don't traditionally visit art galleries and have helped parents who have had difficulties bonding with their children to connect to their children in the context of shared art making. We have evidenced positive changes in the quality of family wellbeing via questionnaires, interviews and observations of family interactions which focus on the experience of the infant. By tailoring provision to local needs and demographics, and specifically seeking to engage under-served communities (minoritized ethnic groups, those living in poverty, young mothers, infants), we have actively broken down established barriers to accessing the arts. Our project has been listed as an example of best public health practise and won several public engagement prizes. Our team are active in the UK wide movement to support infant mental health.The NHS rely on community spaces to help them provide the first line of support for families with young children who are struggling with their wellbeing, but don't yet qualify for urgent clinical care. However, there is a lack of guidance concerning how community providers and NHS stakeholders can work together to deliver early interventions effectively and sustainably. Government think-tanks across the UK agree that it is critical to improve links between community services and mental health services for infants and their families within the NHS, including testing and evaluating models for future service development. Giving children the best start in life is important, because our parents teach us how to interact with others, and the love they provide is essential for us to develop academic and social competence. Poor starts in life can be passed down through generations, and early years interventions offer a way to break this cycle. Critically, since both early relationships and access to the arts have been shown to have protective benefits for health and wellbeing throughout the lifespan, art-based early years interventions stand to have a long-term impact on the lives of the families they reach. The proposed research reflects on whether art-based approaches can be embedded within arts venues as a referral route for infant mental health provision in the UK, ensuring early access to the health benefits of arts. We propose to bring together academics working in psychology, art therapy, arts & health, arts education and midwifery with a range of non-academic stakeholders, including families, family arts and support organisations, arts galleries and NHS infant mental health teams. Led by a community parent researcher and a participation officer from a charity which supports parents, we would aim to evaluate the experiences and needs of families who may benefit from the health and wellbeing outcomes of a community embedded art & health service. Supported by an interdisciplinary team of academics and clinicians, a family arts organisation, and representatives from art galleries and third sector and NHS infant mental health teams, our research team would map existing art-based interventions for early years relationships across the UK. Case studies from two clinicians based within infant mental health teams in Scotland would help to inform the challenges of embedding such services in an NHS context. By facilitating knowledge exchange between this interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary network of academics, clinicians, families, cultural organisations and government and NHS structures, our ultimate aim is to co-produce a research 'road map' to allow for strategic reshaping of cultural assets in the service of public health, targeting the foundations of mental wellbeing.