22/09/25
We are excited to share more about our new partnership with ESA Academy, an screen arts academy for 14-19 year olds
This blog is posted in partnership with Elstree Screen Arts Academy. You can read more about our partnership and process in this blog from ESA Academy Principal Director Chris Mitchell here.
Sharing mental health research with the public beyond the traditional route of scientific journal papers is essential. As a Lab researching children and young people’s mental health, we are passionate about disseminating our research in ways that actually reach young people and their families. However, without input from young people, it’s difficult for researchers to create content that’s engaging to the audiences that we’re trying to reach. Researchers collaborate with young people at all stages of the research process, but not as frequently on the dissemination and public discussion of findings.
This is why we at the Lab decided to partner with Elstree Screen Arts (ESA) Academy. An academy for 14-19 year-olds, ESA Academy trains young people in the screen arts, from writing to costuming to sound design and beyond.
Research Explored will be our first collaboration with ESA Academy: a series of three videos about Lab research projects. Through Research Explored, we will hand over a paper from the Lab's research to the student-led creative team at ESA Academy, and work with them as they transform the paper into a script, a production, and a short film. Our first Research Explored video - on paper recently published by our Academic Lead Dr. Alice Wickersham and co-authors in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry - will explore our findings from the E-Risk Study on how parents' speech about their children can be used to predict those children's mental health outcomes later in adolescence.
Through this collaboration and partnership, students at ESA Academy are creating mental health content by young people, for young people. Watch this space - and our social media - to see the new film when it launches.
‘We’re really excited to begin this partnership with Elstree Screen Arts Academy. Working with a diverse student population of young creatives, ESA Academy put positive mental health and effective solutions at the heart of their educational practice. We are keen to learn from the young people and educators at Elstree, and - most of all - see how their creative talents can translate our research for the screen’.
Prof. Johnny Downs, Head of the CAMHS Digital Lab
But we also want to go one step further. ESA Academy works with a diverse student body, many of whom have experienced mental health issues and other challenges; in some cases, this has contributed to them deciding to attend ESA Academy, as their needs may not have been served as well by traditional secondary schools. Whilst training them in screen arts, ESA Academy supports young people with their personal as well as their professional development, preparing them to live and work in early adulthood and beyond.
‘Schools must become places that adopt research informed practices that improve mental health in our young people. To do this, they need the research data, and they need to know what interventions to implement and how to ensure effective impact.’
         Chris Mitchell, ESA Academy Principal Director
Through this partnership, we’ll also be working with students to share meaningful and useful findings from the mental health research evidence base, whilst hearing from them how this research resonates with their lived experience. This will take the form of ‘behind the scenes’ content as well as in-person workshops and other joint events. By doing this, we’re hoping to broaden the impact of our collaboration, giving researchers the experience of meaningful co-production with young people and sharing their research whilst simultaneously capturing young people’s lived experience and expertise.