The DREAM Project: Diversity, Research, and Engagement for Adolescent Mental Health

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The number of children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds is increasing in the UK. These individuals may be at increased risk of poor mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This may be because they have experienced stressful or traumatic events before, during, and following migration. For example, children may have experienced violence, conflict, or natural disasters in their countries of origin. They may have had long journeys to the UK, or experienced stressful situations such as refugee camps or detention centres, dangerous transit routes, or poor living conditions before arriving in the UK. Children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds in the UK may also experience stressors here such as poverty, violence, stigma or discrimination, violence, or social isolation. There has been limited research on ways to protect the mental health of these children and adolescents, or how to prevent poor mental health outcomes. There is also little understanding of how to best connect with these groups to support their engagement in research or health services, or to ensure that interventions are appropriate, effective, and sustainable. Creative and arts-based approaches such as drawing, painting, theatre, music, and dance have been used to both connect and engage with youth from diverse backgrounds in a meaningful way, and to promote mental health and resilience. The aim of this project is to collaborate with children and adolescence from migrant backgrounds to strengthen what we know about the mental health needs of these youth, and how to promote and protect their mental health. The project will have three interlinked parts in which we will: 1) Develop a research group with collaborators from a range of disciplines and sectors such as research, health services, and community organisations, and the creation of a youth group through which we will collaborate with children and adolescents to develop an art-based intervention; 2) Gather evidence on the mental health needs of children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds and their conceptualisations of stressors, resilience, and barriers to engagement with research and health services through a survey, and a photovoice project using photography to explore their experiences; and 3) Develop, test, and evaluate an art-based intervention in collaboration with the youth group. The findings will be shared with researchers, and the wider community, and will strengthen our understandings of the mental health needs of children and adolescents from diverse backgrounds, and inform future research and interventions.