The project, known as ORIGIN (Optimising cultural expeRIences for mental health in underrepresented younG people onlINe), is running from 2023-2028 and is a collaboration between NHS Trusts, multiple UK universities, with museum and charity partners. Young people will help create an ‘online museum’ as a way of improving their mental health. This research project is being hosted by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, led by researchers from Oxford University and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
We are delighted to be one of the museum partners and from May to July 2025 are working with young people aged 16-24 to uncover twenty unseen stories in the museum collection. These will be submitted as potential exhibits for the ‘online museum’
ORIGIN builds on preliminary research conducted during the O-ACE study, in which an online cultural experience called Ways of Being was co-designed and tested for mental health in young people. Despite limited time and resources in developing Ways of Being, it was enthusiastically received by young people and reduced negative feelings when compared with a traditional museum website.
Partners
- National Museums Liverpool
- Museum of Cornish Life
- Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Young People Cornwall
- The Dreadnought Centre
- Imagineear Ltd
Academic Collaborators
- University of Liverpool
- University of Sheffield
- Sheffield Hallam University
- University College London
- University of Plymouth
- University of Cambridge
- London School of Economics
Image Credit – An intervention for mental health – Ways of Being main menu © University of Oxford / Imagineear Ltd