ATTUNE Project: Transforming adolescent mental health through creativity and science

ATTUNE, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – with additional support from the NIHR ARC OxTV – and led by the University of Oxford in collaboration with Falmouth University, is a unique academic research program that combines artistic and scientific methods to mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in children and adolescents.

The project seeks to meet the diverse requirements of young people aged 10 to 24. This critical age group includes the transition to university and career, when assistance can make a significant impact.

Participants in the ATTUNE project with art they producedWhen the ATTUNE project first began in 2021, the investigators were filled with both excitement and nervous anticipation. Over the last three years, the project has sought to increase engagement and provide opportunities for young people, particularly those living in remote areas who may not have access to crucial resources. The £3.8 million initiative works across Cornwall, Kent, Oxfordshire, London, and Yorkshire, collaborating with a variety of non-governmental organisations and youth groups.

Throughout the journey, using creative methods, the project has enabled young participants to share their stories and voice their treatment preferences. This collaborative approach resulted in the co-design of creative approaches for giving assistance and care, with responses mapped, synthesised, and compared to reveal significant prospects for protecting and developing young people’s mental health.

A notable milestone in the project was the co-design of 'serious games' at Falmouth's Games Academy. These games tested the potential of gaming technology in prevention and therapeutics, offering more personalised solutions to mental trauma. The initiative has not only provided valuable insights but also fostered a community of researchers, advisory groups, research participants, co-designers, sub-groups, and external bodies, all working together to achieve the project's goals.

As ATTUNE enters its final stages with Work Package 6, the project has produced a diverse range of interdisciplinary outputs. These include academic papers, films, songs, and podcasts, all created with the help of young people with ACEs.

Reflecting on the journey, Prof. Kamaldeep Bhui, CBE MD FRCPsych, Professor of Psychiatry spanning the Departments of Psychiatry and Primary Care at the University of Oxford, remarked on the transformative impact of ATTUNE: "Our ambition is to do something useful for young people in the long term, and we’ve stuck to it, it’s all working in the right direction. The highlights will include really synthesising all experiences we’ve had from young people, really understanding them in detail, and be able to share these with public and young people themselves, to better understand the mechanisms involved in developing poor mental health or better mental health.”

Art produced at an ATTUNE eventAsst. Prof. Anna Mankee-Williams, at Falmouth University and Co-Investigator on ATTUNE, commented, "It has been a fascinating experience working within the interdisciplinary research community. We have embedded in our thinking the socio-ecological model in our research approach, and together explored the skills and expertise we bring to this project. By going through this journey together the research team has challenged their own styles and preferences and sometimes bias of research methodology. We have explored meaning and interpretation of both the curated art portfolio and the curated ‘science’ portfolio. Together this has produced valuable insight regarding the impact of ACEs on the mental health of adolescents.”

Isabelle Butcher, a postdoctoral fellow working on ATTUNE, said, “The work that the ATTUNE project has conducted and completed, will not only help inform public health resources but I believe the project has shown that multi-disciplinary projects are the way forward when conducting research.   I hope funding councils will continue to fund multi-disciplinary projects that include those working in a range of disciplines such as but not limited to; psychology, psychiatry, performance arts and health economics.”

ATTUNE has been working on six Work Packages led by different teams of researchers across all universities working in partnership with the project.

As ATTUNE continues to build its community and finalise its outputs, the project stands as an evidence to the power of interdisciplinary research and the profound impact of combining creative and scientific methods to address the needs of young people with ACEs.