Arts4Us - Working Together to Scale up Place-Based Arts Initiatives that Support the Mental Health of Children and Young People

儿童和年轻人(CYP)正在经历一场严重的精神健康(MH)危机，威胁着他们的未来。根深蒂固的健康不平等使这场危机永久化，并呼吁立即采取行动。该项目将促进当地艺术活动的最佳实践，以支持CYP的各种MH需求，从而使他们能够更好地控制自己的生活。通过支持CYP的MH，该项目将满足NHS的一个重要优先事项，有助于解决影响他们生活的健康不平等问题。我们将借鉴蓝调艺术(AH/W007983/1)的成功经验，该项目从AHRC获得资金，用于该计划的第一阶段，并成功地扩大了以证据为基础的创造性心理干预在西北地区的使用。我们还将利用CYP参与艺术活动超过25年的记录，以及我们广泛的联合制作经验。因此，共同创作将成为这项工作的核心。我们将重点关注9-13岁的CYP，这一群体在从童年过渡到青春期早期有极大的风险发展MH问题。我们预计，共同创作将导致CYP与这项研究有意义地接触，目的是产生新的、可扩展的证据，涉及：(A)如何获得最能支持CYP MH的艺术活动；(B)如何评估满足CYP不同MH需求的艺术活动；(C)如何使尽可能多的CYP从艺术活动中获得最大利益。我们将创建一个数字平台，让CYP、他们的家人、相关组织和服务能够轻松地获得以证据为基础的本地艺术活动。我们将通过确定良好的本地艺术实践来满足青年党不同的MH需求，特别是那些经常被低估的人。六名CYP创意健康协会将被雇用在健康不平等明显的地区工作，并在社区合作伙伴和现有的社会处方链接工作人员之间建立地方合作。他们还将与研究团队合作，为艺术活动提供便捷和可持续的途径，从而绕过当地的障碍。综合关怀委员会(ICBS)(例如，兰开夏郡和南坎布里亚，柴郡和默西护理)、CYP MH、NHS信托基金、学校和社区组织的医疗领导和医疗主管的积极参与，将鼓励系统内和系统间的合作，有助于制定一个商定的艺术活动最佳实践评估框架。这将支持简化对艺术治疗用途的获取，并在西北部和其他地区扩大和采用研究成果。最后，我们将开发项目成果并与46个非学术国家和国际合作者分享，为解决健康不平等问题做出积极贡献，无论他们居住在哪里，都能造福于CYP的MH。

Children and young people (CYP) are experiencing a significant mental health (MH) crisis that is threatening their future. Deeply rooted health inequalities perpetuate this crisis and call for immediate action. This project will promote easy access to best practice in local arts activities that support the diverse MH needs of CYP and thus enable them to take better control of their lives. By supporting the MH of CYP the project will meet an important NHS priority contributing towards tackling the health inequalities affecting their lives.We will build on successes from Arts for the Blues (AH/W007983/1), a project that received funding from AHRC for phase one of this programme and successfully scaled up the use of an evidence-based creative psychological intervention in the North West. We will also draw on a track-record of 25+ years of engaging CYP in arts activities, and on our extensive co-production experience.Co-creation will therefore become central to this work. We will focus on CYP aged 9-13, a group at significant risk of developing MH problems whilst transitioning from childhood to early adolescence. They will be encouraged to act as co-researchers developing skills they can use after the completion of the project, ensuring direct benefits.We expect that co-creation will lead to meaningful engagement of CYP with this study that aims to generate new, scalable evidence concerning:(A) how to access arts activities that best support the MH of CYP;(B) how to evaluate arts activities that meet the diverse MH needs of CYP;(C) how to maximise the benefit of arts activities for as many CYP as possible.We will create a digital platform where evidence-based local arts activities will become easily accessible for CYP, their families, relevant organisations and services. We will do this by identifying good local arts practice that addresses the diverse MH needs of CYP, especially those who are often under-represented. Six CYP Creative Health Associates will be employed to work in areas with marked health inequalities and establish local collaborations between community partners and existing social prescribing link workers. They will also work with the research team to provide easy and sustainable access to arts activities and thus, bypass local barriers.The active involvement of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) (e.g., Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Mersey Care), medical leads and medical directors of CYP's MH, NHS trusts, schools and community organisations will encourage collaboration within and across systems, enabling the development of an agreed evaluation framework of best practice in arts activities. This will support streamlining access to therapeutic uses of the arts as well as scaling up and adopting the outputs from the study in the North West and beyond.Finally, we will develop and share the project outputs with our 46 non-academic national and international collaborators, making an active contribution towards tackling health inequalities that benefits the MH of CYP wherever they live.