Healing postpandemic children's and family mental health: novel initiative convergence of clinical chatogether intervention with community art bridge

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant psychosocial consequences for children and their families. Yale CHATogether (Compassionate Home, Action Together) established since the pandemic to target community cross-cultural family mental health through various artistic platforms. CHATogether consists of 6 distinct components, namely interactive theater, mental health education, research, peer support and community outreach, collaboration, and mentorship. We will show how CHATogether is implemented in clinical settings with a talk from Eunice Yuen, MD, PhD (“CHATogether: An Interactive Theater Intervention to Support Adolescents and Families Seeking Mental Health Care”), collaboration with Community Arts Bridge presented by Luchia Lee, MPhil (“NYC Art Bridge: Professional Artists Promoting Mental Health”), and qualitative interviews by Stephanie Wu, MD, with professional artists from around the world (“Learning From the Artists: Exploring Creative Mind, Culture, and Family”). The panels represent diverse cultural backgrounds (East Asia, Mexico, and Nigeria), interdisciplinary expertise (medicine, arts, and music), and training levels (medical residents, clinical practitioners, artists of various ages) detailing CHATogether programs as culturally attuned intervention to support creative expressions and storytelling for children, adolescents, and their families. Participants will learn: 1) cross-cultural and art-based family-centered clinical intervention to improve access, child-parent relational health, and help-seeking behavior; 2) new cross-disciplinary model in viewing the needs in postpandemic mental health; 3) partnerships with artists to support innovative interventions in child and adolescent psychiatry; and 4) potential of CHATogether as a global mental health program. Post–COVID-19 pandemic mental health is an ongoing national crisis across children and the family system. Art appreciation–based innovation allows cathartic spaces to express difficult emotions, break barriers of communication, and restore meaningful relationships in a family. Increased understanding of cross-disciplinary collaboration in the creation of art-based interventions and interacting with patients through a new lens of creative perspective will provide a valuable skill for mental health clinicians.