Creative Workshops in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Lima (Peru)

What do we mean by creative workshops?

Creative workshops bring together a group of people to explore a theme or topic using various artistic and/or creative mediums.

The theme of the creative workshops will be “Travellers of the Future” in which young people will use games and artistic dynamics (theatre, poetry and painting) to express how they imagine the future based on their own experiences and dreams. The workshops will follow a guide developed and facilitated by Teatro La Plaza (Peru) and Crear Vale La Pena (Argentina).

Aims

Study design

This is an exploratory non-controlled trial, which means we are testing creative workshops in a small number of young people to find out their experiences.

Why are we doing this study?

Creative activities have been linked with improved outcomes for people experiencing mental distress. We are therefore carrying out this study to explore whether creative workshops, carried out in the community, might help young people experiencing mental distress. We are measuring young people’s symptoms of depression and anxiety and their ratings of quality of life across a number of domains (for example, friendships, who they live with, leisure activities etc); to see if these improve after attending creative workshops. We are also asking participants about their experiences of the creative workshops including what they liked and did not like.

This study is an extension of the TWIC (Trial Within a Cohort) study carried out in March/April 2022 (as part of the OLA cohort study).