Healing Heritage:The Therapeutic Value of Museums

Dr Helen Chatterjee, Deputy Director, UCL Museums + Senior Lecturer in Biology, UCL School of Life and Medical Sciences

Images ©

UC

L Museum

s

Museum Object Therapy

OBJECTIVES:

• To explore the psychosocial impact of object handling on patients, carers and staff

• To examine a variety of patients’ responses in relation to type of object and patient background/health status

• To understand the underlying cognitive psychological processes involved in museum encounters

• To develop an effective protocol for object handling in healthcare settings

AIMS:To consider the potential of engaging with heritage objects as a therapeutic or enrichment activity within healthcare.

1. Heritage in Hospitals

What we did…

• Develop protocol; gain medical ethics committee approval; design handling sessions; agree data collection methodology

• Over 300 museum object handling sessions with hospital patients + care home residents

• Collect data on patients’ wellbeing before, during and after 30-40 minute handling session

• Reflect on our experience of museums-in-healthcare

Partners:

Healthcare settings:•University College London Hospitals (2 hospitals)•Prospect Park Psychiatric Hospital, Reading•John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford•Residential care homes (London, Reading, Oxford)

Museums:•>20 different partners, e.g.•The British Museum•Oxford University Museums Service•Reading Museums Service•ACE

Think Tanks:•NEF•ILC-UK

Third Sector Agencies:•The Alzheimer's Society•Age-UK•Royal Society for Public Health

Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) to assess psychological wellbeing - developed by Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988)

Quantitative methods: taken before and after session

EQ VAS (Visual Analogue Scale) to assess health status and general wellbeing developed by EuroQol Group (1990)

Experimental and Control conditions

Experimental condition: Looking at, handling and discussing museum objects

Implicates visual, tactile and verbal modalities

Control condition: Looking at and discussing photographs of museum objects (the same set of objects as used in the experimental condition)

Implicates visual and verbal modalities

Quantitative outcomes: Experimental Vs Control

Negative moodPositive mood

Pre-sessionPost-session

HappinessWellness

0

20

40

60

80

100

Experimental Control

Pre-sessionPost-session

Positive adjective scores

Psychiatric

hospital

Residential

care home

Neuro rehab

(outpatients)

Neuro rehab

(inpatients)

Gen m

ale oncology

Gen fem

ale oncology

Gynae

oncology

Acute &

elderly care

Surgical

admissions

Negative adjective scores

Psychiatric

hospital

Residential

care home

Neuro rehab

(outpatients)

Neuro rehab

(inpatients)

Gen m

ale oncology

Gen fem

ale oncology

Gynae

oncology

Acute &

elderly care

Surgical

admissions

Outcomes - qualitative inductive thematic analysis and grounded theory

New perspectives

Excitement, enjoyment, wonder, positive feelings (e.g. privilege, luck, surprise)

Learning (including skills and confidence)

Energy, alertness, flow

Cheered up

Sense of identity, meaning making opportunities

Something different, inspiring

Calming, relieves anxiety

Passing time

Social experience

Tactile experience

Patients were distracted from their clinical surroundings and felt healthier and

happier

Conclusions

Object handling had beneficial effects on wellbeing though

unclear whether effects were just psychological

Further studies need to be carried out on a

greater variety of patients as well as their carers and healthcare staff

Findings used to develop best practice manual for

care worker, museum and hospital volunteer training

programmes

2. Museums, Health and Wellbeing in practice

Museum-Wellbeing Umbrella (Thomson and Chatterjee, 2013)

Images © UCL Museums

3. Measuring the value of museum encounters

Outputs:

•>10 peer-viewed journal articles

•2 book chapters + 1 book: Museums, Health and Well-being by Helen Chatterjee and Guy Noble – out 2013.

•Websites: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/research/touch/wellbeing

•2 exhibitions, 4 workshops and >10 conference/workshop presentations

•Royal Society for Public Health: Arts and Award 2011.

Acknowledgements:

•AHRC for funding and support

•Collaborators and partners

•Hospital and care home participants and staff

Contact:

h.chatterjee@ucl.ac.uk