Arts On Our Mind - the effectiveness of creative activities in promoting mental wellbeing and reducing psychopathological symptoms in children of families with a mental illness

This research explores the effectiveness of creative activities in promoting mental wellbeing and reducing the psychopathological symptoms of children of parents/families with a mental illness (COPMI). The research is a mixed method, randomised experimental and control group design to explore changes in psychopathological symptoms, as well as levels of resiliency and mindfulness in the COPMI population.Participants of the research will be young people identified to have a family member with a mental illness, living in the Metro South Health catchment region. Referrals may include self-referrals, referrals from mental health clinicians or other stakeholders such as youth workers, school staff or primary healthcare providers. Participants may or may not be currently experiencing a mental illness themselves. Exclusion criteria applies to those who are currently at risk of harming themselves or others, experiencing a psychotic episode or abusing illicit substances, as they may not be able to participate safely in the group. Participants with severe cognitive impairment are also excluded as they may have difficulties following directions and participate fully and meaningfully in the group. Eligible participants will be randomised into either the Experimental Group that will take part in the ‘Arts On Our Mind’ (AOOM) creative arts group (which is the research intervention) or the Waitlist Control Group, in which the participants will not be taking part in AOOM during the initial research period. However, they will be offered the opportunity to take part in AOOM after the initial research period to ensure equal access to the program. Therefore, there will be two sets of data collected for the Waitlist Control Group, which includes the initial data set collected when acting as a control for the experimental group, as well as the subsequent data set collected when engaged in the AOOM after the waitlist period is over. For the purpose of this study, participants will be exposed to simple, accessible, inexpensive and common creative activities usually deemed to be fun and engaging to young people. Such activities may include: drawing, role plays, sound/music creation, mask making, collage, painting, mosaic, pastels and printmaking. The focus of the research intervention is exposure to a variety of creative activities over a 5-week period, with quantitative data collected at the start, at the end and post-one-months of the 5-week intervention period. Art materials and instructions used includes a number of creative activities taken from The Expressive Arts Activity Book (Darley and Heath, 2008), using common art materials such as colour pencils, paper, cardboards, acrylic paints etc. The five sessions conducted over five weeks will involve an assortment of creative activities ranging from writing to painting, drawing and printmaking. Each session is about three hours long. There will be a maximum of 12 participants. There will be at least two facilitators, who do not have to be a mental health professional, but should have ready access to one for supervision, referral and debriefing purposes. All facilitators will need to undergo a brief workshop prior to their participation for familiarisation of the group program and to promote uniformity in the approach. The chief investigator can be a mental health professional supervising the facilitators and be one of the facilitators. The sessions are delivered face-to-face. The location and setting of the group will be in an appropriate community health facility with access to air conditioning, water and toileting facilities. A Facilitator Self-Assessment form will be completed by facilitators after each session to report on their perception of their adherence. All facilitators would also have completed a familiarisation workshop (with assessable criteria) prior to their participation to promote uniformity of approach.