Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the What’s Up With Everyone? campaign was led by the Institute's Professor Paul Crawford, with research teams at the University of Nottingham, Loughborough University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, the Mental Health Foundation, Happy Space and Buzz Consulting.

The campaign includes a series of five animated films created with and for young people, by multi-award-winning independent studio Aardman, about dealing with life’s challenges before they impact mental health.

The five animations cover issues such as loneliness and isolation, perfectionism, competitiveness, independence and issues surrounding social media. A companion website provides online resources including advice and support to those who identify with the issues, or are concerned about others struggling with them.

The most visited resources on the site have been those dedicated to loneliness and perfectionism, attracting 20,000 visits, which represents 53% of the website’s total traffic to date. Overall, the campaign reached over five million young people on social media.

The findings come at a time when the pandemic has increased the focus on youth mental health and wellbeing, with reports that two thirds of young people have experienced worse mental health during the period of lockdown restrictions.[1]

A survey conducted by the NHS has shown that one in six children and young people had a probable mental health disorder in July 2020, compared to one in nine in 2017[2], whilst the Office for National Statistics discovered that more than half of students at university (57%) reported a worsening in their mental health and wellbeing since the beginning of the autumn term in September 2020.[3]

The impact of the campaign indicates what can be achieved when the creative and academic sectors come together to maximise the impact of public health research.

As well as communicating mental health research to a wider audience, What’s Up With Everyone? will help further our understanding of mental health through an evaluative study of audience responses. This will investigate the impact of the films on young people, and determine their perceptions and trust in the information in the films and its companion platform. The findings from this study will be synthesised in a digital showcase hosted with the Mental Health Foundation.

Paul Crawford, Professor of Health Humanities said:

“It is sobering to see that loneliness and perfectionism are the most prominent issues affecting so many young people’s mental health at a time when the impact of lockdown has been profound.[4] As well as offering a much needed mental health resource for young people, this campaign forms part of a wider research project that will evaluate how effective these creative platforms are as a way of reaching young people who need it, and ensuring help and guidance is easily accessible.

“Preliminary findings from our research shows that the films improve young people’s knowledge and attitudes towards mental health, their willingness to seek help, and confidence to help their peers.”

Paul will be discussing his collaboration with Aardman at the Pint of Science festival on May 20th. Information and registration here.

 

[1] https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/5929/the-mental-health-emergency_a4_final.pdf

[2]https://www.england.nhs.uk/2020/10/nhs-encourages-children-and-young-people-to-seek-help-as-new-data-shows-rise-in-mental-health-problems/

[3] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandhighereducationstudents/england20novemberto25november2020

[4] https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/camh.12458