Strategic Suggestions for Further Consideration

inequities, and help decision-makers and stakeholders to judge the potential health effects of cultural & creative policies, programmes or projects concerning mental health of young people. Properly employed, these assessments take multiple dimensions of well-being into account (physical, social, emotional, practical reasoning, etc.) while ensuring engagement of all sectors involved and the community. The assessment method can be used to assess non-health policies in terms of health.

Strategic Suggestions for Further Consideration

• Model intersectoral collaboration: Develop a conceptual framework for planning cross-sectoral collaborations, including a common vocabulary.

• Empower youth: Use creative programmes to engage youth in developing mental health policy. This should mean real empowerment of youth, not token participation.

• Expand education: Encourage the inclusion of culture and creativity in the education of professionals in health, social welfare, education and other relevant fields.

• Develop training modules to build capacity for intersectoral collaboration.

• Implement social prescribing as a model, and if promising, initiate experimental programmes to build collaborations between health, culture and creativity sectors, among others.

• Expand health impact indicators to encourage multi-sectoral cooperation, and evaluate across dimensions of well-being.

• Initiate and support an international learning community for deploying culture and creativity in support of youth mental health.

• Support the design of co-funded programmes specifically addressing the need of inter-sectoral collaboration in cultural & creative interventions aiming the improvement of mental health in young people.

Appendix A and B offers tables of inter-sectoral cultural interventions in support of youth mental health. These tables also suggest the common inter-sectoral vocabulary that will be required among stakeholders, and the flexibility that will be required of all the partners involved.