Concerning news about children and young people’s mental health in the UK feels like a daily occurrence. A recent study (June 2023) reported that 1 in 5 7-16 year olds have a mental health problem. 60% of children referred to mental health services by GPs are reportedly not being seen, with CAMHS services remaining under huge pressure.
Taking part in creative activities is now widely understood to have benefits for our mental health and wellbeing, including for children and young people. CAMHS services are not the only way young people might access the arts for their mental health, but they are one way; and they obviously see – and have on their waiting lists – some of the most vulnerable children and young people in the country. As a funder, we have had relatively few applications from arts organisations seeking to partner with CAMHS in a major way (although this is also true of adult mental health services). However, there are some inspiring examples and this blog seeks to highlight some of the ones we know about.
This blog takes partnership to mean, for example arts organisations and CAMHS: co-designing the programme together and/or co-delivery (e.g. staff attending sessions or offering ongoing support), and/or a level of co-funding.
It also focuses on programmes delivered in the community. There are also a number of inpatient units offering creative programmes and working with arts organisations or artists to provide creative activities for young people whilst they are in hospital (GOSH who have worked with the Vacuum Cleaner, Artfelt in Sheffield, Alder Hey in Liverpool, Quench Arts in Birmingham with Birmingham & Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust and Forward Thinking Birmingham, to name a few) – that’s another blog!
Greater Manchester iTHRIVE Arts, Culture and Mental Health programme
GM i-THRIVE is the team responsible for delivering transformation of children and young people’s mental health services across Greater Manchester. As its name suggests, the Arts, Culture and Mental health Programme is its cultural arm and its role is to strengthen the evidence for arts and health, broaden the arts and mental health offer for young people and to increase collaboration between professionals.
In 2020, the programme worked with arts organisations, the voluntary sector and commissioners to develop pilot projects involving arts organisations and three local CAMHS. Those were Bolton CAMHS with Odd Arts and Bolton Lads and Girls Club Wellbeing Theatre Group; Tameside & Glossop Healthy Young Minds with Glossop Arts Project; and Stockport Healthy Young Minds (HYM) and Arts for Recovery in the Community (Arc), who used a range of creative activities, including forum theatre and the visual arts.
The children and young people who took part in the projects were either already engaged with the service or on waiting lists; where they were on treatment, that continued.
Projects were governed by Service Level Agreements which set out expectations around supervision and governance. Sessions were co-delivered by NHS mental health staff and arts practitioners in a range of settings, including NHS premises, cultural venues and online.
The project also required that each team used a new GM i-THRIVE Youth Mental Health Arts and Culture Evaluation Kit, co-designed by arts providers, mental health practitioners, academics, NHS clinicians and representatives from policy makers, (which you can request).
This programme is now expanding to three more Greater Manchester boroughs, part funded by the Baring Foundation.
Hywel Dda University Health Board: Arts Boost
For the last two years, Hywel Dda UHB has been running a programme called Arts Boost for children known to and awaiting intervention from its Specialist Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (SCAMHS). Children and young people’s mental health is a priority for the Health Board, which is like many places experiencing increasing numbers of referrals of young people to CAMHS. The programme was initially open to 12- to 17-year-olds who are suffering from disordered eating, low mood, anxiety and/or depression across Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, and is now open to young people with mild to moderate mental health difficulties more broadly.
Hywel Dda Health Board is the lead partner. All health boards in Wales now have arts and health leads (in Hywel Dda, Kathryn Lambert and Dr Cath Jenkins), responsible for running arts and health activities, with mixed funding including from the Arts Council of Wales but also the NHS. Arts Boost is part of an initiative called Arts and Minds, funded jointly by ACW and the Baring Foundation, to enable the arts and health leads to develop programmes specifically around mental health.
There are three commissioned three arts partners; Span Arts in Pembrokeshire; People Speak Up in Carmarthenshire; and Small World Theatre in Ceredigion, who are delivering a range of artist-led creative activities including animation, mixed media art and aerial movement.
Activities take place in cultural venues; efforts are made to make these venues as close to the centre of the county as possible as Hywel Dda serves very rural areas with limited transport options. Artists were provided with training. Various safeguarding measures are in place, including check-ins and check-outs using an ORS (Outcome Rating Scale) at every session so young people can be fast-tracked to support if necessary.
They report:
“The Arts Boost project offers young people a new experience of engaging with SCAMHS and provides opportunities for young people to work alongside our arts partners across the three counties to explore their identity, nurture positive aspirations and develop the resilience to manage challenging life circumstances, making a positive difference to their lives.” Katie O’Shea, Lead for Psychological Therapies, SCAMHS, Hywel Dda
Hampshire Culture Trust and Hampshire CAMHS: the ICE Project/s
Since 2017, Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT) and Hampshire CAMHS (provided by the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) have partnered together to run two iterations of the ICE (Inspire//Create//Engage) programme, making use of HCT’s 23 venues across the county.
The original ICE Project (2017-2020) offered a wide range of participatory arts opportunities, with a variety of referral routes in, including via schools and youth workers. The second programme is ICE Heritage (2021-2023) which deploys Hampshire’s heritage assets creatively to support young people’s mental health. It is a 10-week programme, open to young people aged 11 to 18. To join, young people need to be known to Hampshire CAMHS, e.g. waiting for therapy, receiving treatment or have been recently discharged. Opportunities continue after the 10-week programme and they aim to keep young people involved for two years.
Hampshire CAMHS provided training, signposting to specialist support, managed referrals and promoted the programmes in GP surgeries and clinics. HCT managed the project and coordinated artistic activity. Both organisations sit on a project steering group and meet regularly for reviews.
The ICE projects have had a mix of funding, including Hampshire CAMHS and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
They say:
“Hampshire CAMHS have been delighted to work in collaboration with Hampshire Cultural Trust on some amazing, creative and inspirational programmes with young people. The use of arts and culture to positively impact on young people’s mental health is incredible, vital, and a joy to observe. The opportunities for young people to experience this can’t be underestimated. It has the power to change, challenge and inspire on a very deep level.” (Hampshire CAMHS lead Helen Dove)
Hoot/Northorp Hall Child & Family Trust, Kirklees
Hoot is a creative health charity, Northorp Hall Child & Family Trust delivers CAMHS in Kirklees, West Yorkshire.
The project ran for a year as a studio style drop-in at Hoot premises in Huddersfield and Batley for young people assessed by CAMHS as requiring low-level support. There was a chance to experiment with different art forms, including creative writing, music/rap and visual arts.
The project was funded by NHS ‘Winter Pressures’ funds, and it was hoped that by running the sessions after school, the project could help reduce the high levels of A&E attendances by young people in mental distress between the peak hours of 4pm and 7pm.
The project was governed by an agreement clarifying roles and expectations, which ensured that clinical responsibility was always held by CAMHS, with a CAMHS worker present at every session and Hoot delivering the creative activities.
Hoot and Northorp Hall are currently fundraising together to continue the project.
Hoot worked closely with Elaine Burke, an arts and health consultant, to provide training for artists on working with young people with mental health problems, and to provide reflective practice sessions for the artists working on the project, which they regarded as vital.
As ever, this blog can’t be comprehensive and we are always pleased to hear about similar programmes we’ve missed. The Foundation’s Creatively Minded directory highlights more arts and mental health organisations that do incredible work with children and young people in general (at a rough count: 75 across the UK, although our data is certainly an underestimate).
However, we hope that it demonstrates that close partnerships between arts organisations and CAMHS, while not numerous, can be successful. They can operate at both the relatively local level such as in Kirklees and the regional level like Greater Manchester or Hywel Dda. Projects can be broad or targeted towards specific pressure points in children’s mental health services. They can take place in cultural venues, clinical settings, online or all three. Responsibilities can be shared out in different ways. Our supposition is that champions for the arts within clinical services are important, as Kat Taylor has been in Manchester, Helen Dove in Hampshire, and the Arts and Health leads are within Welsh UHBs.
Most of all, of course, they can have a positive impact for children and young people at a difficult time in their lives:
[It was a] very supportive group, the amount of support and happiness is incredible.
Young person, GM i-Thrive pilot
I will actually come out and do things now. Before I would just stay in my house.’
Young person, ICE Project, Hampshire Cultural Trust
Art is the only way I express my difficulties.
Young person, Hywel Dda
Useful links
A case study of GM i-Thrive CAMHS pilots
A short film about Arts Boost, Hywel Dda
