Oxford university's online museum aims to improve mental health

Around 1,500 young people are taking part in the Origin project (file photo)

A group of young people are designing an online art and culture museum in a trial aimed to improve mental health.

About 1,500 people, aged 16 to 24, are taking part in Oxford university's Optimising cultural expeRIences for mental health in underrepresented younG people onlINe (Origin) project.

The £2.6m programme is aimed at reducing anxiety and depression.

Prof Kam Bhui, from the University of Oxford, said: "There is a massive treatment gap which we hope to fill."

Those taking part include people from LGBT+ backgrounds, autistic individuals, those from ethnic minorities, people from deprived areas of the UK, and those on NHS waiting lists for mental health support.

The research project is being hosted by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

'Empowering intervention'

Prof Bhui, who is co-leading the project with Dr Rebecca Syed Sheriff, said: "There is enormous potential for creative and digital methods to authentically capture young people's experiences and co-design interventions to prevent poor mental health."

He said Origin would complement other "pioneering programmes" in the university's psychiatry department which use creative arts as "empowering intervention for young people".

Dr Syed Sheriff, an NHS consultant psychiatrist and senior clinical researcher at the university, said while most mental health problems start before the age of 25, young people are the least likely to receive mental health care - with some groups, such as ethnic minorities, even less likely.

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She explained: "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."

Helen Adams, from the university's Gardens, Libraries and Museums - which is partnering on the project, said museums were not always seen as accessible or relevant by many young people.

She said she hoped the programme would help to enrich and improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people, "potentially encouraging lifelong engagement".