Heritage, health and well-being: assessing the impact of a heritage focused intervention on health and well-being

Abstract

Abstract Do museums and other heritage organisations have something to offer the healthcare sector? Do they have a role in improving health and well-being? Increasingly both heritage and healthcare organisations think they do. A broader definition of health including well-being and an emphasis on preventative medicine and multi-agency approaches to care within the UK's National Health Service has facilitated the work of museums and galleries in this area. However, there are still few specific heritage programmes in healthcare organisations and very little evaluation of these. Here we present key findings from a qualitative evaluation of a heritage focused intervention carried out in a range of healthcare settings. The aim of the research project was to assess the impact on well-being of taking museum objects into hospitals and healthcare contexts. Keywords: healthwell-beingobject handlingheritage interventionhospitalscare homes Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council who funded this research (Award number: AH/G000506/1). Part of the work was carried out within the 'women's health theme' of the UCLH and UCL NIHR Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre supported by the UK Department of Health. We are grateful to all of the patients, care home residents and staff who participated in this project. Notes aNote that not all sessions were analysed qualitatively. 1. MLA Citation2010. 2. New Economics Foundation Citation2009, p. 21, Bacon et al. Citation2010 3. Culture Unlimited, 2008, http://www.cultureunlimited.org/museums-of-the-mind.php 4. 'This is Living' Good Times: Art for Older People at Dulwich Picture Gallery, Harper and Hamblin, Oxford Institute of Ageing Report Citation2010. 5. 'Meet me' Making Art Accessible to People with Dementia, The Museum of Modern Art, Rosenberg et al. Citation2009. 6. Burns Owen Partnership Citation2005. 7. Heritage in Hospitals project website, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/research/touch/wellbeing 8. UCL Museums & Collections, website, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/ 9. Quotations are directly from participants, although anonymised with their research sample number/a pseudonym; in all quotations the italicised text is from the facilitator and the normal text is the participant.