Red Kite View Art Research Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
‘How does including curated artwork within the hospital environment impact mental health improvement of young people and their families during an inpatient admission?’
IRAS ID
315620
Contact name
Emma Inman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Leeds and York Partnership Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Our study aims to explore the potential impact that curated artwork within the hospital environment may have on mental health improvement for young people in psychiatric inpatient hospitals.The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of including a collection of artworks (paintings, drawings, and prints) in a mental health hospital for children and young people. The artwork we have installed at Red Kite View has been chosen (curated) by young people and others that may be involved with Red Kite View in several ways. We would like to know if including a collection of artworks like this has an impact on mental health improvement for young people in the hospital.
Before Red Kite View hospital was built there was investment from the Trust to include artworks within the hospital as young people had described their hopes that the new unit would be inspiring, hotel-like and state of the art. Stakeholder involvement was key in creating a selection of artworks that were placed in the hospital to ‘inspire, motivate and calm’ as vital focus areas and we included the views of local young people (not in services), service users, families of service users, staff from the previous hospital site and staff from the wider child and adolescent mental health services and members of the public interested in child and adolescent mental health service development in this process
This research is central to understanding if the curated artwork has had a positive or negative impact on the wellbeing of our service users during their inpatient stay at Red Kite View. The population that we will study is 13–17-year-old young people admitted to the General Adolescent Unit (GAU) at Red Kite View - Leeds child and young person’s inpatient mental health service, and their parents or carers.
We aim to understand further whether artworks included in the built environment impact wellbeing and recovery for children, young people and their families and if so, how. The intent of this research project is to be able to develop methods of using artwork in hospitals as part of the clinical setting and model. We aim to contribute to the existing body of evidence about the effects of art in the clinical or hospital environment.
Summary of Results
This research study aimed to further understand whether curated artworks included in the hospital environment impact the wellbeing and recovery of children, young people, and their families and staff members, and if so, how. Part of this research project’s intent was to develop methods of using artwork in hospitals as part of the clinical setting. The findings demonstrate that a mixed method approach of using auto-photography and semi-structured interviews to be an effective method of generating data to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact the hospital environment has upon wellbeing and recovery. However, participation from young people could be improved through paying participants for their time and involvement in the study, which was a frequent request from the young people involved in this study and is an approach that is often included in research studies.
This study aimed to contribute to the existing body of evidence about the effects of art in the clinical or hospital environment. The curated art within this study had an impact on the way the hospital building and service within it was experienced by service, users, families, and staff members.
Based on our findings and those of previous studies, artwork in situ has contributed to a reduction in distress levels, evoking feelings of hopefulness, enhancing connection to the environment and facilitate healing processes through creative expression. The findings from this research underpin the potential importance of integrating curated art into psychiatric environments for children. Healthcare teams and architects designing new build/adapting existing buildings alongside healthcare professionals should recognise the therapeutic potential of including art in the environment and work closely with policymakers and artists to implement high-quality curated art programs that support holistic well-being for young patients in psychiatric wards. This study also shows that service-users, families, and staff are positively impacted by the inclusion of artwork in this environment and feel valued as though their wellbeing has been considered as part of the purpose of the environment.
The study has provided unexpected and interesting results in relation to the initial aims. The results have identified that including curated artwork positively impacts a high percentage of users of the building, provides access to artwork, contributes to the development of relationships, aids communication, improves the overall experience of a healthcare environment and may offer increased feelings of various states of wellness among service users, parents and carers and staff within the service.
Participants reported that having the artwork in the environment contributed to starting conversations, supporting the arts curriculum within the educational service within the hospital, enabling and accessing calmer internal states that supported staying present with young people at times of distress, feeling valued due to the attention to detail and feeling that the environment was ‘thought about’ with a real sense of purpose before it was built, making the hospital feel less scary, and enabled creativity. Another interesting finding was that of the potential for artworks to provide containment for negative internal states and enable dialogue around how service users may view the environment negatively due to levels of distress. There is potential, over time, through the treatment process and changing levels of distress that views about the environment may alter, and through dialogue around the artworks within the hospital, a tracking of a changing narrative may be captured.REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
22/WA/0245
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion