Healthy Young Minds: co-producing a nature-based intervention with rural High School students to promote mental well-being and reduce anxiety

健康的年轻心灵：与农村高中生共同开展基于自然的干预措施，以促进心理健康并减少焦虑

• 批准号: MR/Z503599/1
• 负责人: Sara Bradley
• 金额: $ 19.75万
• 依托单位: University of South Wales
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FZ503599%2F1
• 关键词: Healthy; Young; Minds; co; producing

An early intervention programme will be co-produced with rural High School students to promote mental well-being, increase resilience and reduce anxiety through engagement with nature and local greenspaces. Poor mental health is experienced by many young people, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, and poses a significant health challenge, nationally and globally. Levels of anxiety are increasing, fuelled by fears about issues like climate change, examinations, body image and cyberbullying. Smith et al (2017) and Gilmour et al (2022) refer to the growing number of referrals to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and long waiting times. The link between engagement with nature and mental well-being is widely evidenced in adults (Mughal et all 2022) and the benefits referenced in Public Health (Masterton et al, 2020) but less is known about if and, if so, how young adolescents access nature for mental health benefits, particularly in rural areas. Rural young people experience additional disadvantages, which have an impact on mental health, due to geographical isolation, lack of public transport, poor Broadband connectivity and poor access to services. See Me (2018) found only 26% of young respondents would tell someone if they were finding it difficult to cope with mental health because of fear of being judged and not taken seriously. Fear of stigma is an even greater disincentive for those seeking help in small communities where some rural High Schools have fewer than 300 pupils and anonymity is extremely difficult to achieve. Studies (Thompson, Lejac 2021; Allwood 2021) show these difficulties are compounded for young people experiencing additional support needs, caring responsibilities, marginalisation (e.g. LGBT+) and deprivation, which is often hidden in rural areas.Informed by research evidence and professional mental health expertise, the co-production approach increases the chances that young people will engage with developing an accessible, appropriate and acceptable intervention to promote mental well-being among High School students. Co-production connects young people's lived experience with professional input to strengthen intervention design. This proposal is based on findings from the 'Building Natural Capital' study (Ideas Fund) by Bradley, Ellis and Taylor with a group of rural High School students. It introduced second year (S2) students to research about how greenspaces can support mental wellbeing and explored how they used local greenspace in a region where young people's mental health had been identified as a priority by the Highland Community Planning Partnership 'Highland Outcomes Improvement Plan' and local organisations such as mental health charity, Ewen's Room.This study's objectives are:To co-produce a preventative, nature-based intervention with rural High School students, peer supporters and researchers to alleviate anxiety, build resilience and promote mental well-being in early adolescence when mental health problems often arise.To identify, highlight and address rural High School students' mental health issues as well as examine challenges and priorities for future rural service delivery.To undertake research and evaluation of the co-production activity to add knowledge about the practice, to assess the impacts of co-designing with young people and to test its efficacy in intervention design.To develop an intervention framework to be trialled in a follow-on pilot which will test feasibility, gauge potential impact, examine scalability and undertake a cost-benefit analysis.

将与农村高中学生共同制作早期干预方案，通过与自然和当地绿地的接触，促进心理健康，提高复原力，减少焦虑。许多年轻人的心理健康状况不佳，特别是在2019冠状病毒病大流行之后，这在国家和全球范围内构成了重大的健康挑战。由于对气候变化、考试、身体形象和网络欺凌等问题的恐惧，焦虑程度正在上升。Smith et al（2017）和Gilmour et al（2022）提到越来越多的儿童和青少年心理健康服务（CAMHS）转诊和漫长的等待时间。与大自然的接触和心理健康之间的联系在成年人中得到了广泛的证明（Mughal et all 2022）和公共卫生中提到的益处（马斯特顿et al，2020），但对于青少年是否以及如何获得大自然的心理健康益处，特别是在农村地区，了解得较少。由于地理位置偏远、缺乏公共交通、宽带连接不佳和难以获得服务，农村青年面临更多不利条件，对心理健康产生影响。See Me（2018）发现，只有26%的年轻受访者会告诉别人，他们是否因为害怕被评判而难以科普心理健康问题。对于那些在小社区寻求帮助的人来说，害怕耻辱是一个更大的抑制因素，在这些小社区，一些农村高中的学生不到300人，匿名是极难实现的。研究（Thompson，Lejac 2021; Allwood 2021）表明，对于经历额外支持需求、照顾责任、边缘化的年轻人来说，这些困难更加复杂（例如LGBT+）和贫困，这往往是隐藏在农村地区。通过研究证据和专业的心理健康知识，共同制作的方法增加了年轻人参与制定一个无障碍，适当和可接受的干预，以促进高中生的心理健康。联合制作将年轻人的生活经验与专业投入联系起来，以加强干预设计。这项建议是基于布拉德利，埃利斯和泰勒与一组农村高中学生的“建设自然资本”研究（思想基金）的结果。它介绍了二年级（S2）的学生研究绿地如何支持心理健康，并探讨他们如何在高地社区规划伙伴关系“高地成果改善计划”和当地组织（如心理健康慈善机构Ewen's Room）将年轻人的心理健康确定为优先事项的地区使用当地绿地。与农村高中生、同伴支持者和研究人员共同制定一项预防性的、基于自然的干预措施，以缓解焦虑，建立弹性，并在青少年早期经常出现心理健康问题时促进心理健康。强调和解决农村高中生的心理健康问题，并审查未来农村服务提供的挑战和优先事项。对共同制作活动进行研究和评估，以增加有关实践的知识，评估与年轻人共同设计的影响，并测试其在干预设计中的功效。制定一个干预框架，在后续试点中进行试验，以测试可行性，衡量潜在影响，检查可扩展性，并进行成本效益分析。