Creative Practice As Mutual Recovery: Connecting Communities for Mental Health and Well-Being

这项高度合作的研究旨在研究艺术和人文领域的创造性实践如何促进相互联系和互惠，从而在心理健康和幸福感方面支持相互恢复。“相互康复”的概念更具包容性，源于精神卫生保健中越来越有影响力的“康复”概念，它指的是无论精神健康的“症状”或残疾如何，都有可能实现有意义、更具弹性和自力更生的生活。然而，通常情况下，基于康复的倡议往往只关注被确认为有心理健康需求的人(服务用户)，而忽视了压力重重的非正式照顾者以及在这一领域工作的卫生、社会护理和成人教育人员可能也需要在自己的心理健康和福祉方面进行“康复”或“康复”。我们的中心假设是，创造性实践可以成为一种强大的工具，将各种不同的社会行为者和实践社区聚集在一起，以相互或互惠的方式建立和联系它们，以增进心理健康和福祉。这种方法与Murray(2012)发现的“新一波相互作用”是一致的，其标志是“合作的新兴趣”(第1页)，加强不同或不同群体或机构之间的联系和共享，以及“让使用者、社区和工作人员参与的不同方式”(第7页)。艺术和表现力疗法在心理健康服务和创造性实践(例如，视觉艺术、音乐、戏剧、讲故事等)中得到了很好的确立，在这方面具有明显的促进相互恢复的作用。研究已经证明了艺术对于以康复为导向的精神健康服务的重要性，它们如何提供打破社会障碍的方法，表达和理解经历和情感，以及帮助重建身份和社区。随着精神疾病的负担日益加重，加上提供服务的成本不断上升，现在是时候调查有心理健康需要的人、非正式照顾者以及保健、社会护理和成人教育人员如何抓住新的机会，建立相互欣赏和实质性联系的社区--具有复原力的相互希望、信任、同情、平等和团结的社区。这项为期五年的研究将为AHRC资助的现有健康人文项目增加一个新的维度。其以实质性艺术和人文学科为主导的一揽子工作方案纳入了社会科学评价层，力求在政策、提供和实践方面产生变革性影响。它将起到灯塔的作用，将艺术和人文、社会和健康科学的研究人员以及支持有精神健康需要的人的第三和法定部门组织联系起来，以产生新形式的社会和文化联系，以促进精神健康的恢复。与互联社区的精神相一致，这项研究的中心主题是共同的社区价值观和参与对这一相互恢复议程的贡献，以及自力更生和韧性可以以何种方式“共同产生”，以支持社区环境中的心理健康和福祉。因此，这一雄心勃勃的多学科研究计划将通过在学术社区和合作伙伴社区之间建立新的联系来实现AHRC互联社区的愿景，以提高研究参与度、繁荣、可持续发展以及健康和福祉。

This highly collaborative study aims to examine how creative practice in the arts and humanities can promote the kinds of connectedness and reciprocity that support 'mutual recovery' in terms of mental health and well-being. The idea of 'mutual recovery' extends more inclusively out of the increasingly influential notion of 'recovery' in mental health care which refers to the possibility of achieving a meaningful, more resilient and self-reliant life irrespective of mental health 'symptoms' or disabilities. Typically, however, recovery-based initiatives tend to focus exclusively on people identified as having mental health needs (service users) and overlook how hard-pressed informal carers and health, social care and adult education personnel working in this field may also need to 'recover' or be 'recovered' in terms of their own mental health and well-being. Our central hypothesis is that creative practice could be a powerful tool for bringing together this diverse range of social actors and communities of practice, to establish and connect them in a mutual or reciprocal fashion to enhance mental health and well-being. Such an approach is congruent with 'the new wave of mutuality' identified by Murray (2012), marked by 'renewed interest in co-operation' (p.1), enhancing connections and sharing between distinct or separate groups of people or institutions and 'different ways of involving users, communities and workers' (p.7).Arts and expressive therapies are well-established in mental health services and creative practice (e.g. in visual arts, music, drama, storytelling and so on) has demonstrable potential for a role in advancing mutual recovery in this context. Research has already demonstrated the importance of the arts for 'recovery orientated mental health services', how they provide ways of breaking down social barriers, of expressing and understanding experiences and emotions, and of helping to rebuild identities and communities. With a growing burden of mental ill-health combined with rising costs for the delivery of services, it is timely to investigate how people with mental health needs, informal carers and health, social care and adult education personnel can take new opportunities to build mutually appreciative and substantively connected communities - resilient communities of mutual hope, trust, compassion, equality and solidarity. This five-year study will add a new dimension to existing AHRC-funded health humanities projects. Its substantive arts and humanities led programme of work packages incorporate a social sciences evaluative layer that seeks to advance transformative impacts in policy, provision and practice. Acting as a 'beacon', it will link researchers in the arts and humanities, social and health sciences and third and statutory sector organisations supporting people with mental health needs, in order to generate new forms of social and cultural connectedness that can facilitate mental health recovery. Consistent with the Connected Communities ethos, central themes in this research are the contribution of shared community values and participation to this mutual recovery agenda and the ways in which self-reliance and resilience can be 'co-produced' to support mental health and well-being in community settings. Hence, this ambitious, multidisciplinary research programme will address the AHRC Connected Communities vision through establishing new connections between academic and partner communities in order to enhance research participation, prosperity, sustainability, and health & well-being.