Creative Lives: Young people’s mental health and wellbeing

Welcome to “Creative Lives”, a podcast which opens provocative conversations, experimenting with big ideas and local practices. We bring together researchers, experts by experience, artists and performers, approaching issues around community, learning, communication, healthcare, welfare, age and the life course. The possibilities of creativity are endless. Join us for mind-opening stimulus. In episode 1, Lorna Collins speaks to Dr Thomas Kador (UCL Arts Science) and Lidia Lidia (artist) about young people's mental health and wellbeing. Lidia Lidia is a multidisciplinary artist working with installation, video, photography, performance and activism. Lidia believes passionately in the statement that ‘the personal is political’ and that through art it is possible to shape society. Using strong and sometimes disturbing images in combination with extensive research she aims to communicate uncomfortable narratives. Thomas Kador is Associate Professor on the Arts & Sciences programme at University College London (UCL). He is Principal Investigator of the SWELS project, investigating student wellbeing, and works with the Student Mental Health Research Network. With colleagues at UCL he is about to launch the new MASc Creative Health degree programme. In this episode, Lidia and Thomas discuss their lived experience and research on the topic of young people’s mental health and wellbeing. They start by talking about creativity, and how creativity feeds their lives and their work. Then, they contextualise the central issues, which young people currently face, in our COVID times (for example, the pros and cons of not having exams, funding issues, being trapped in the capitalist structure of society). The podcast ends with a creative flourish, asking how we can open and liberate new points of view, for better mental health and wellbeing (for the young, for us all). Transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/grand-challenges/creative-lives-episode-1-young-peoples-mental-health-and-wellbeing The editing is by Nina Quach, and the music credit is “123 Inspiring Motivation Piano” by Tim Moor.