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Graffiti art inspires young people to feedback on NHS mental health service

An NHS mental health service in Leeds has been using graffiti art to receive feedback from young service users. Their work will now be officially unveiled at a celebration event at Little Woodhouse Hall on Thursday 16 July from 12 noon to 4pm.
Celebration event - graffiti having a positive effect.  A worthwhile cause celebrated through the use of graffiti art by young people in Leeds.

Young people showed off their creativity to feedback their thoughts on NHS Leeds Community Healthcare’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). The work was commissioned by NHS Leeds, the health trust responsible for ensuring that the people of Leeds have access to the health services they need.

To encourage participation from young people, NHS Leeds’ Patient and Public Involvement Team enlisted the help of three professional graffiti artists. The artists worked with 16 different service users over three days to create three distinctive pieces of art.
Three professional artists contributed the cause in order to entice potential young creatives. They obviously view graffiti as an art form which can encourage those of any age to be creative.

Each day started with facilitated discussion around their experiences of using the services at Little Woodhouse Hall. There was much debate and participants were then able to highlight what an ideal service would look like. Two of the final pieces of art represent the young people’s experiences of the service. The third is a welcoming piece of art that the young people want hung at the entrance to the unit to greet patients, carers and staff.
Negative connotations of graffiti have been diminished as young people now want one of the pieces of art created through this event to act as a 'welcoming piece' to the unit.

In addition to the feedback from young people involved in the arts project, views were sought from other children, young people, their carers and families. Information was also gathered from staff in the service and from NHS Leeds’ Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS).

The event will give commissioners, patients, staff, health professionals and the wider public a chance to hear about the future plans for CAMHS. Speakers at the event include Richard Chillery, Service Manager, Ashley Wyatt, Commissioning Manager and Emma Ross, Team Manager as well as a someone who uses the service.

Ashley Wyatt, CAMHS Commissioning Manager at NHS Leeds says: "We decided that to get a truly reflective view of the service we needed to adopt a more innovative approach that would appeal to young people. We are delighted with the information we have received. We would like to congratulate the service users for producing some really inspiring pieces of art. In addition to this we would like to thank the families of service users,members of staff and the Patient and Public Involvement Team for their help. The information we gained will help us to meet new national requirements for Tier 4 CAMHS services – which deals with the most severe, complex and enduring cases. We hope that by working with our partners we can ensure that our service continues to meet the needs of our patients."

People attending the event will be provided with a buffet lunch. In addition to this the family-orientated celebration will include a bouncy castle, a creative corner, tombola and more.
Bringing communities & every generation closer.

Article found here