Former medical student Rebecca Syed Sheriff (Balliol 1994) has won an NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) programme grant worth £2.61m as the principal investigator on a research project looking at using arts and culture to benefit mental health in under-represented young people.
The study involves diverse young people aged 16–24 co-designing an online arts and culture intervention — an ‘online museum’ – as a way of reducing anxiety and depression. Its effectiveness will then be tested in a trial of nearly 1,500 young people, including some of the most under-represented: specifically LGBTQ+ and autistic young people, ethnic minorities and those who live in some of the most deprived areas of the UK, including Cornwall, Liverpool, Sheffield and Blackpool and those on NHS waiting lists for mental health support.
Hosted by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and led by researchers from Oxford University, the project, known as ORIGIN, will run from 2023 to 2028 and is a collaboration between NHS Trusts, multiple UK universities, and museum and charity partners. ORIGIN builds on preliminary research conducted during the O‑ACE study, in which an online cultural experience called Ways of Being was co-designed and tested for mental health in young people. This was enthusiastically received by young people and reduced negative feelings when compared with a traditional museum website.
Rebecca Syed Sheriff, an NHS consultant psychiatrist and senior clinical fellow in Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry, is leading the programme. She says: ‘Most mental health problems start before 25, yet young people are the least likely to receive mental health care, with some groups such as ethnic minorities even less likely. Much of the support currently offered by health services, such as medication and talking therapies are inaccessible and unacceptable to many of the young people who need it most. Online support can be more accessible and this exciting project gives us the chance to work with diverse young people on their own terms to co-design an intervention that young people are engaged by and believe in. This programme could have significant implications for how arts and culture are used to improve the mental health of young people in the future in a way that is engaging and accessible across diverse groups.’