ABSTRACT
There is growing momentum to understand the value of the arts in mental health and wellbeing. Engagement with the arts can promote wellbeing by helping to build resilience, aid recovery and foster social connections. Aim(s): To co-develop, implement and evaluate the impact of Culture Dose for Kids (CDK), an arts engagement program, on young people's anxiety. Method(s): Mixed methods [surveys and interviews] were used to research an 8-week series of face-to-face arts engagement sessions conducted at the Art Gallery of New South Wales with anxious youth (9-12 years) and their parents/carers. Result(s): Findings indicate that the children's anxiety scores decreased over the eight-week program. Sustained high attendance rates throughout were another marker of its effectiveness and engagement, although a COVID outbreak affected several sessions. Qualitative data, from parent and children's interviews, offered greater insight and meaning into CDK's impact on the child and family. Not only did parents find CDK calming and stress-relieving for themselves ('a little gift of time'), but they said that they are using some strategies and topics from the sessions to connect more closely with their child and their child's issues. By engaging both parent and child in this inclusive, non-stigmatizing arts-based mental health intervention, a more holistic, family-centred, community approach to supporting wellbeing occurred. Conclusion(s): This study responds to the recent call to move beyond the formal mental health system to facilitate community-led initiatives and infrastructure to strengthen young people's overall mental health and well-being and their social connections and involvement with their community.
ABSTRACT
Story completion is a narrative inquiry method where participants complete a story from an opening hypothetical scenario or ‘stem’ that researchers create. While interest in this method is growing across disciplines due to its emancipatory potential, the literature fails to address how story completion can be used in culturally safe ways. Cultural safety in research means that it is the participants who determine whether the process values and privileges their unique standpoints and perspectives. Culturally safe research approaches and methods are crucial to decolonisation efforts in the academy. To illustrate this topic, we draw from our experience using a digital version of story completion in May 2020 to prompt thoughts on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We received 52 responses from Australian residents using a stem relating to a pandemic-related scenario. When we noted the lack of diversity in ethnic backgrounds in participant demographic information, we wondered whether story completion was reinforcing rather than disrupting norms about narrative inquiry and what constitutes a story, and we questioned our recruitment strategy. In this paper, we highlight the importance of decolonising research methodologies rather than merely adapting or validating methods by using them across different cultural contexts. We explain how our story completion project led to reflections on western constructions of storytelling, how to create the stem, and how to improve our recruitment approach. In response, we propose a rhizomatic perspective, which values multiple entry and exit points in research, to frame practical strategies that can improve the potential of using story completion in culturally safe ways. These include: embracing messy stories;exploring diverse notions of storytelling;favouring story fragments (rather than stems) and story assemblage (rather than completion);co-designing story fragments with target groups;and collaborating with local communities to co-design culturally appropriate and sensitive recruitment strategies and projects. © The Author(s) 2022.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic recession has increased parental psychosocial stress and mental health challenges. This has adversely impacted child development and wellbeing, particularly for children from priority populations (culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and rural/regional communities) who are at an already increased risk of health inequality. The increased mental health and psychosocial needs were compounded by the closure of in-person preventive and health promotion programs resulting in health organisations embracing technology and online services. Watch Me Grow- Electronic (WMG-E) - developmental surveillance platform- exemplifies one such service. WMG-E was developed to monitor child development and guide parents towards more detailed assessments when risk is identified. This Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) aims to expand WMG-E as a digital navigation tool by also incorporating parents' mental health and psychosocial needs. Children and families needing additional assessments and supports will be electronically directed to relevant resources in the 'care-as-usual' group. In contrast, the intervention group will receive continuity of care, with additional in-person assessment and 'warm hand over' by a 'service navigator' to ensure their needs are met. METHODS: Using an RCT we will determine: (1) parental engagement with developmental surveillance; (2) access to services for those with mental health and social care needs; and (3) uptake of service recommendations. Three hundred parents/carers of children aged 6 months to 3 years (recruited from a culturally diverse, or rural/regional site) will be randomly allocated to the 'care-as-usual' or 'intervention' group. A mixed methods implementation evaluation will be completed, with semi-structured interviews to ascertain the acceptability, feasibility and impact of the WMG-E platform and service navigator. CONCLUSIONS: Using WMG-E is expected to: normalise and de-stigmatise mental health and psychosocial screening; increase parental engagement and service use; and result in the early identification and management of child developmental needs, parental mental health, and family psychosocial needs. If effective, digital solutions such as WMG-E to engage and empower parents alongside a service navigator for vulnerable families needing additional support, will have significant practice and policy implications in the pandemic/post pandemic period. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial (Protocol No. 1.0, Version 3.1) was registered with ANZCTR (registration number: ACTRN12621000766819 ) on July 21st, 2021 and reporting of the trial results will be according to recommendations in the CONSORT Statement.