The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding is supporting interventions for children and young people in parts of the UK where high rates of mental illness affect communities, delivering positive improvements in wellbeing and reducing NHS costs.
The north-west of England has some of the highest levels of unemployment, economic deprivation, and mental health problems in the UK, with 16.6% of children and young people having one or more mental disorders and the region with the second highest rate of suicide in England.
Evidence from the World Health Organization (WHO), amongst others, shows that arts-based mental health interventions can be highly effective, particularly for older people and people struggling with isolation and loneliness, such as those from deprived areas.
The Arts4Us end-of-year event. Credit: The Reel Thing, courtesy of Professor Vicky Karkou, Edge Hill University
AHRC-funded Arts for the Blues and Arts4Us explore how creative arts-based group interventions can be scaled-up in communities and healthcare systems to improve wellbeing across the north-west of England.
In these initial phases over 400 practitioners have now been trained to deliver Arts for the Blues therapies with six organisations. The organisations include NHS talking therapies, cultural organisations, and mental health charities, providing arts-based therapies as a part of routine service delivery.
Additionally, the approaches are now being offered as treatment in three NHS Child and Adult Mental Health Services, and internationally in Pakistan and Malaysia. By upskilling mental health professionals in arts-based therapies and integrating these approaches into NHS talking therapies services, the projects have saved money for the NHS.
One NHS manager stated of the new model of therapy provision that “You’ve provided an alternative and you’ve saved money somewhere else in the system”.
The Arts4Us team and the WHO Arts and Health Officer. Credit: The Reel Thing, courtesy of Professor Vicky Karkou, Edge Hill University
The team is led by Professor Vicky Karakou, working with Professor Joanna Omylinska-Thurston and Professor Scott Thurton, who have developed a model for delivering creative psychological therapy in collaboration with over 70 partners.
Partners include NHS professionals, therapists, children and young people with lived experience of mental health conditions, artists and other key stakeholders. The project teams have co-designed, run and evaluated arts-based psychotherapies and mental health interventions that suit the diverse mental health needs of adults, children and young people, carers and NHS staff in the north-west of England.
Libby, a member of YoungArts4Us, said:
I personally struggle with my mental health. I found that performing helped me and gave me a way to cope.