Health and wellbeingThe contribution of the arts and humanities

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) supports world-class research that furthers our understanding of human culture and creativity. It supports research and postgraduate training in a wide range of subject areas, from ancient history and heritage science to modern dance and digital content. Research into these areas helps us to interpret our experiences, probe our identities, interrogate our cultural assumptions and understand our historical, social, economic and political context. It adds to the economic success of the UK, through its contributions to the knowledge economy and innovation agenda. The research we fund can lead to improvements in social and intellectual capital, community identity, learning skills, technological evolution and the quality of life of the nation. For further information, please go to: www.ahrc.ac.uk

Research Councils UK (RCUK) is the strategic partnership of the UK’s seven Research Councils who annually invest around £3 billion in research. We support excellent research, as judged by peer review, that has an impact on the growth, prosperity and wellbeing of the UK. To maintain the UK’s global research position we offer a diverse range of funding opportunities, foster international collaborations and provide access to the best facilities and infrastructure around the world. We also support the training and career development of researchers and work with them to inspire young people and engage the wider public with research. To maximise the impact of research on economic growth and societal wellbeing we work in partnership with other research funders including the Technology Strategy Board, the UK Higher Education funding bodies, business, government, and charitable organisations. www.rcuk.ac.uk

Images clockwise from top left:

Innovative neural imaging methods to explore real-time emotional responses to place.

A still from a RedCape Theatre production –photo courtesy of University of Exeter.

Re-engaging with music at a workshop for implant users – photo courtesy of Matt Salvage.

Documentation of the multi-channel video installation, Theatre at RAF Lyneham by David Cotterrell, 2008. © Wellcome Collection.

ENHANCING HEALTH AND WELLBEING

INTRODUCTION

The arts and humanities play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of our lives, our health

and wellbeing. They nourish creativity and fire our imaginations in ways that continue to surprise us.

They help us to realise our deep human need both to understand and to share that understanding with others. A healthy society is unthinkable without the arts and humanities.

There is nothing more important to us, as individuals and as a society, than our health and well-being. While advances in medical science have brought us immeasurable improvements, we are only just beginning to understand the profound role of cultural experience in promoting health and well-being: not just by prolonging life but by giving meaning and value to it. This publication highlights some of the ways in which the arts and humanities develop our quality of life. And that might be among the

biggest of our challenges over the next few decades.PROFESSOR RICK RYLANCE Chief Executive of the AHRC

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Working in partnership

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds a wide range of research in over 50 disciplines. Many of its funded projects explore questions about our health and wellbeing. They look for ways to enhance health through cultural interventions, to explore the importance of communities to our sense of wellbeing, or to bring the ethical, cultural and creative insights of the arts and humanities to bear on addressing broader medical, therapeutic or demographic challenges.

In addressing these areas of research, the AHRC works closely with other Research Councils. The cross-council programme, Connected Communities (led by AHRC), funds research with the aim of developing flourishing communities which can support enhanced health and well-being and informing future policy and practice. The New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) initiative,

ENHANCING HEALTH AND WELLBEING

‘White Peacock’, a multi-sensory play for an audience aged 11 and above with profound and mulitple learning disabilities

launched in 2005, a seven-year multidisciplinary research initiative, draws in arts and humanities research with the ultimate aim of improving the quality of life of older people. The MRC-led Lifelong Health and Wellbeing programme, which was launched in 2008 and which builds on the NDA initiative, involves AHRC in one of the major cross-council ‘grand challenges’.

The contribution of the arts and humanities

This booklet highlights a small fraction of the extraordinary work being undertaken by arts and humanities researchers, in partnership with other Research Councils, with health professionals, doctors and medical practitioners, support staff, care groups, charities, cultural organisations, community groups, policy-makers, other funders and many others. Through these partnerships researchers use their insight, knowledge and creativity to address some of the most pressing challenges we face as individuals and as a society.

For example, researchers are exploring the contribution to health and wellbeing of food-growing and community gardening (Church), religious identity (Seglow), access to sunlight (Sharpe), environment (Ward Thompson) and better design (Wigglesworth). Others are addressing the implications of an ageing society and the increase in the number of people with dementia, through, for example, an exploration of the role of design (Jakob), creativity (Windle), or memory and reminiscence (Tolson) in supporting dementia sufferers and their carers. Researchers are showing how cultural and artistic activities can stimulate and bring health benefits to, for example, cochlear implant users (van Besouw), children with severe and multiple learning difficulties (Brigg), hospital patients (Chatterjee), the elderly (Amigoni). The picture is one of creativity, innovation, partnership and a deep commitment to enhancing wellbeing and health in a wide range of contexts.

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Richness and diversity

The picture is also one of a great diversity: AHRC-funded research, projects funded with other Councils or other funders; research grants, networking awards, collaborative doctoral awards; research undertaken by doctoral students, early career researchers and senior academics. The picture is a rich, diverse and, we think, a fascinating one.

Further information

We hope you enjoy reading about the projects outlined in this publication. If you would like further information on anything featured here, please contact Jessica Clark on j.clark@ahrc.ac.uk

Above: Hospital patient enjoying a handling session as part of the Heritage in Hospitals project Below Right: A public demonstration of Surgical Simulation, as part of ‘Art Simulation and Surgical Humanities’, led by Professor Roger Kneebone © Imperial College London

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HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

Connected Health and Social Care Communities

Dr Mervyn Conroy University of Birmingham

This project studied service integration, personalisation and interconnectedness. Through workshops, seminars and a discussion paper the project developed new conceptualisations of ‘community’ in health and social care, the relationship between personalisation policy and practice and health and social care connectivity. Research led to the development of an approach to facilitate health and social care communities in becoming resilient and able to lead change. This approach was piloted in a feedback session during the project and has since been used in educational and engagement contexts.

It is of course important to ask how policies impact on how people using and delivering services interact with health and social care. But it is also vital that we understand how practitioners – individually and collectively – respond to policy implementation in ways which

enable both continuities and change.

DR HARRIET CLARKE University of Birmingham

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Religion, Justice and Well-Being: the normative foundations of public policy in a multi-faith society

Dr Jonathan Seglow Royal Holloway, University of London

The ‘Religion, Justice and Well-Being’ project investigated how law and public policy could take account of citizens’ distinctive religious perspectives, as well as principles of rights and justice. It brought together academics, religious representatives and policy stakeholders in five seminars on: community cohesion, family policy, healthcare, faith schools and religious reconciliation. The deliberation these seminars involved challenged and changed the views of religious and non-religious participants, academics and practitioners. One conclusion of the healthcare seminar, for example, was that a person’s attitude to her own health was quite different if she believed that her body belonged to a larger religious order than if she adhered to secular notions of bodily self-ownership.

Human wellbeing is promoted in light of maintaining the senses of autonomy and dignity in the individual, indeed these are crucial to health and wellbeing. The understanding that a person has concerning their health and disease is based on the complex relationship between their experience, cultural factors, language and religion. This understanding is best recognised as occurring in the context of community.

Both individual welfare and community welfare ought to be appropriately valued in the pursuit of health and well being; they cannot be separated. DR NIALL SCOTT University of Central Lancashire.

Kitchen with medium occlusion and sunlight during daytime (MEARU)

Sunshine, Health and Wellbeing in Housing

Dr Tim Sharpe Glasgow School of Art

This project aimed to test a hypothesis that good access to sunlight in the home will have a positive influence on general health and wellbeing. The study was a collaboration between Glasgow School of Art, Stirling University and Glasgow Caledonian University, with an industry partner Glasgow Housing Association. The team undertook a survey of 40 households in multi-story flats in Glasgow with variable window orientation and occlusion. It found that there were significant (but weak) relationships between sunlight opportunity and air quality, and

sunlight opportunity and psychological wellbeing. The methodology was found to be viable and further research is planned using this study as a pilot.

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Glasgow Housing Association was delighted to collaborate in this research – we have 43,000 tenants and are firmly focused on supporting our residents’ wellbeing and ability to lead happier, healthier lives. We were pleased to facilitate the Sunshine, Health and

Wellbeing study to help GSA increase the body of knowledge in this area for housing providers. DAVID FLETCHER Assistant Director, Regeneration, Glasgow Housing Association

HEALTHY COMMUNITIES

Representing Communities: developing the creative power of people to improve health and wellbeing

Professor Gareth Williams Cardiff University

Policies for health improvement tend to focus on the impact of large-scale socio-economic change or on ‘lifestyle choices’. This study explores the experiences of people living in varying socio-economic circumstances, using innovative methods which create opportunities for dialogue between communities themselves and those who shape and make policy.

Taking place across five communities in Wales, Scotland and England, the project aims to establish how community representations produced through creative arts practices can be used as forms of evidence to inform health-related policy and service development and will create a permanent legacy of artistic resources for the communities involved.

The study will provide new and innovative evidence to inform our work with communities and other stakeholders, as well as in informing future theoretically informed interventions. We are particularly interested in how these assets may be

mapped and this study provides new insights as to how we may achieve this.

PROFESSOR SIR MANSEL AYLWARD Chair, Public Health Wales People working at Tablehurst and Plaw hatch community farm

in Sussex

A South Wales Community, one of five communities explored by the project

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Connecting health, health-behaviour and place through the work of community gardening

Professor Andrew Church University of Brighton

People who grow their own food tend to be happier. This was one of the findings from the European Quality of Life Survey for the EU15 countries. Researchers from the universities of Brighton, Manchester and Glasgow worked with Tablehurst Community Farm in West Sussex and the Young Women’s Health Project in Manchester highlighted the fact that the health benefits of food growing were taken for granted and people’s motivations for joining food growing projects focused on community development, social interaction and sharing.

The project gave young women a chance to develop their own allotment and to consider the benefits of fresh food and social outdoor spaces. The effect has been transformative for some as they have met people they would never usually meet and have travelled to

other food growing communities.

CLAIRE HOLMES Community Research and Youth Worker, Manchester Young Women’s Health Project

DEMENTIA

Dementia and Imagination: Connecting communities and developing wellbeing through socially engaged visual arts practice

Dr Gill Windle Bangor University

People with dementia and their families often become disconnected from society through the stigma attached to the condition. At the same time, society often misunderstands the condition, and offers little opportunity for participation. There is a need for communities to change in the face of the increasing numbers of people with dementia. This research, due to begin in July 2013, will explore how the vision for dementia supportive communities might benefit from creative activities. It will use visual arts as the catalyst for increasing connectivity and wellbeing, and challenging and changing the stigma associated with dementia.

This project has the potential to help people with dementia, their carers and their communities – as well as health and social care services. We look forward to helping ensure the findings are widely disseminated, so that as many people as possible can benefit.

MICHAEL BABER Managing Editor, Age Watch An example of inadequately applied MSEs within a care home as explored by the project

The Multi Sensory Environment (MSE) in dementia care: the role of design

Dr Anke Jakob Kingston University London

This interdisciplinary research explores the quality of multi-sensory stimulation offered in homes for people living with dementia with a particular focus on Multi Sensory Environments (MSEs), and whether design can help to improve such experiences maximising therapeutic benefits. Although MSEs are widely used in dementia care, little documented design guidance for this specific user group exists.

Led by Dr Anke Jakob (Kingston University) and Dr Lesley Collier (University of Southampton), the research investigates current design and application of MSE facilities within a care home context establishing new knowledge from which coherent, inclusive and user-centred design solutions can be developed. Research outcomes, made accessible online, will potentially contribute towards improved care services for those living with dementia and their carers.

Further information http://fada.kingston.ac.uk/de/MSE_design_in_dementia_care/

Care UK is pleased to be part of this project as it not only provides the opportunity for knowledge exchange and support, there is also real potential for this to enhance people’s understanding of multi-sensory environments and to positively

enhance the lives of people living with dementia.

MAIZIE MEARS-OWEN Head of Dementia Care, Residential Care Services, Care UK

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Above: Reminiscence Café at Public Conference Hampden Park Top Right: Conference delegates visit the Hall of Fame at the Scottish Football Museum

FOCUS ON...

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Harnessing the Heritage of Football: Creating Meaningful Activities and Therapeutic Work with People with dementia

Professor Debbie Tolson Glasgow Caledonian University

This project undertaken between 2010-2012 by the Scottish Football Reminiscence Partnership united expertise from healthcare, dementia care, football, culture and heritage. Three universities (Glasgow Caledonian University, The University of the West of Scotland, St Louis University USA) worked with the Scottish Football Museum, Alzheimer Society and Former Players to generate research-based interventions and resources to improve the health and wellbeing of individuals with dementia and family carers.

A secondary intention was to promote intergenerational dementia awareness and encourage inclusion of people

with dementia. Project activities included a literature review, European Survey, oral histories, small group reminiscence and mass reminiscence at Hampden Park.

Over three hundred people with dementia and carers participated; findings were presented through a short play and soundscape. Project partners Alzheimer Scotland are currently supporting 50 volunteer-based football reminiscence projects. A funding application for a future trial is in preparation with an expanded partnership of clinical dementia researchers from England and Scotland.

Football reminiscence is currently being piloted by UWS, GCU Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona across four Spanish cities funded by Spanish Federation of Veteran Football Players Associations (FEAFV). Project partners at St Louis University, USA, are collaboratively piloting a Baseball Memories project inspired by the Scottish Project.

This project is one of six being funded through a partnership between the AHRC and the Scottish Funding Council under the banner of ‘A Healthier Scotland’.

Perhaps the most inspiring memory and thought I will be left with is the memory of a room filled with people with dementia, some of them with their families, many others supported by professional carers but all of them collectively sharing in the wonderful

memory of football, right in the heart of the home of our national game. That collective moment will last for me for a long time, for in that moment we all forgot about dementia and remembered people. HENRY SIMMONS CEO, Alzheimer Scotland

I feel it’s important for him to have this as it made such a difference. The day at Hampden, last Friday, he was bright, happy and talking. It was like a light going on, but more importantly he felt good, he was able to participate without any pressure. FAMILY CARER

Compositions for Cochlear Implantees

Dr Rachel van Besouw University of Southampton

For severely or profoundly deaf people who receive little benefit from conventional hearing aids a cochlear implant can provide useful speech perception. However, cochlear implants are poor at conveying pitch information and, although many users express a desire to hear music again, they are often dissatisfied with the sound of music through their implant and some avoid music altogether.

There is evidence to suggest that training improves the music perception abilities of cochlear implant users and this, combined with users telling us they would like to hear music again, inspired the research project

Top Right: Re-engaging with music at a workshop for implant users Left: Learning to create and manipulate music to suit the implant. Images: Matt Salvage

‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees’. The main aim of this project was to develop and evaluate a music rehabilitation resource with and for adult cochlear implant users.

Following a series of consultations and music workshops an ‘Interactive Music Awareness Programme’ was developed with software applications that enable users to create and manipulate music to suit their implant.

Findings from a trial at the Southampton Auditory Implant Service suggest that the programme improves certain aspects of music perception. Feedback from the trial is being used to further develop and expand the programme with contributions from major artists. The programme will be launched online at www.morefrommusic.org in January 2014.

As cochlear implant recipients are able to access better hearing than ever before, they are keen to listen to music again or for the first time. Music brings solace, encouragement and beauty to all hearing people; it is now in the reach of profoundly deaf people with

cochlear implants. JULIE BRINTON Director of the Southampton Auditory Implant Service

My cochlear implant quickly gave me brilliant speech recognition, but listening to music remained a dream. This project was demanding and fun, and allowed me to re-discover the pleasure of music; the end result has been truly amazing and I am delighted

with the extra dimension it has given to my life. DEBBIE BROUGHALL Cochlear implant recipient, University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service and Trustee at Hearing Link

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AGEING

Mobility, Mood and Place (MMP)

Professor Catharine Ward Thompson University of Edinburgh

The study will use innovative neural imaging methods to explore real-time emotional responses to place

This study explores how places can be designed collaboratively to make mobility easy, enjoyable and meaningful for older people. It builds on evidence that how we experience environments, emotionally, influences our mood and, in turn, our willingness to be active. Partnered by 16 stakeholder bodies including Age UK, Sustrans, the Stroke Association and NHS Lothian, it involves co-design with a range of participants, including stroke survivors and people with Alzheimer’s, as well as innovative neural imaging methods to explore real-time emotional responses to place. Working with the Lothian Birth Cohorts of people in their 70s and 90s, this research will be the first to consider the influence of local environments in which people have resided from childhood.

The experts in any place are the people who live and work there. Your research is an excellent opportunity to learn about some of the key issues affecting the present and future of places. This form of collaboration is essential to informing sustainable

decisions about change and we would be delighted to share the outcomes with colleagues in Government. DIARMAID LAWLOR Head of Urbanism, Architecture and Design Scotland (A+DS)

Late-life Creativity and the’ new old age’: Arts &Humanities and Gerontology in Critical Dialogue

Professor David Amigoni Keele University

This network, led by Professor David Amigoni from Keele University and Professor Gordon McMullan from King’s College London, set out to establish an enhanced, shared understanding of creativity in later life by bringing together a wide range of academic participants from the arts & humanities, gerontology, medicine and psychiatry with practitioners, performers and older people involved in creativity or in the encouragement of creativity. The ideas developed will help to give shape both to new interdisciplinary research and to thinking about policy for the future. This, in turn, will help generate new openings for the engagement of higher education with the creative possibilities of later life both in research and in practice.

The interdisciplinary workshops set an important new agenda for exploring creative self-expression in late life. The critical dialogue evoked by the workshops highlighted the myriad personal, cultural, and political issues involved in aging, as well as the diverse

meanings of creativity. As a critical gerontologist, I am indebted to the AHRC for funding the pioneering efforts of David Amigoni and Gordon McMullan, who have fostered exciting new collaborations. DR PIA C. KONTOS CIHR New Investigator, Research Scientist, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University of Toronto

Intergenerational drama work in rehearsal as part of a Keele University project funded under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) initiative

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How better design can facilitate mobility, connectivity & wellbeing for older people: a participatory approach to design research

Professor Sarah Wigglesworth The University of Sheffield

This project aims to design exemplary prototypes for age-friendly environments, taking special account of older people’s need for safety, health, mobility and independence, to improve their overall wellbeing. The research team from the University of Sheffield involves people from architecture, planning, landscape and public health.

Together with partners UK Online and Sheffield City Council, researchers will employ specially developed methods of engaging older people and through a cycle of consultation, design, testing and further consultation, and develop solutions that meet the needs of occupiers and those tasked with managing housing and the wider neighbourhood.

Images on this page: HAPPI Report’s Case Study building, the iconic apartment tower Der Rokade (2007), Groningen, Netherlands; architects: Arons en Gelauff. Including 74 private flats for sale to those over 55 years, within a continuing care complex and a community hub as part of the scheme, it pushes the boundaries of the public image of older people’s housing. Top Left: Apartment block exterior showing residential tower and podium containing parking over ground level commercial space. Bottom Left: Apartment interior showing conservatory. Right: Apartment interior showing living/dining room & balcony. All images by Judy Torrington and published in the HAPPI Report, 2009. Reproduced by kind permission of the HCA.

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The recent House of Lords’ Public Service and Demographic Change Committee report, Ready for Ageing? stated that we are woefully underprepared for an ageing population. With a growing emphasis on integration, we need to build a robust

evidence base on the benefits of good quality design and housing. Above all, this exciting new research project will demonstrate the health and wellbeing outcomes that can be achieved. JEREMY PORTEUS Director, Housing Learning and Improvement Network

WELLBEING AND LEARNING DISABILITIES

Mental health and Learning Disabilities: Heritage and Stigma

Dr Rob Ellis University of Huddersfield

The Heritage and Stigma project is designed to link academic understanding of the histories of mental ill health and learning disability with areas of current practice. By working in partnership it will raise awareness and understanding of issues relating to mental health and learning disabilities both now and in the past. With partners including Leeds Mencap. St Anne’s Community Services and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the project will result in exhibitions , online materials and publications, as well as the creation of new archival resources.

We believe that the partnership with the University of Huddersfield will have a profound effect on the local community’s perception of individuals with learning disabilities. This partnership will help dispel stereotypes and help them to realise that like

everyone else they have wishes, ambitions and dreams.

RUTH FAWCETT Head of Fundraising & PR, Leeds Mencap

Right: Leeds Mencap archive material used in the project

‘White Peacock’ at the Nottingham Playhouse

Theatre for audiences labeled as having profound and multiple learning disabilities: assessing and addressing access to performance

Dr Gill Brigg University of Nottingham and Nottingham Playhouse

Dr Gill Brigg wrote ‘White Peacock’, a vibrant multi-sensory play written for audiences aged 11 and above labelled as having profound and multiple disabilities. It tells the eventful story of the last night of Sam’s school holidays and features live music, singing and digital projection in a purpose-built micro-theatre. Each 50-minute performance is for up to six young people, with one-to-one companion support. Produced by Roundabout at Nottingham Playhouse, the play attracted great critical acclaim on its first tour in 2010. As part of her PhD, Gill also wrote guidelines for theatre-makers wishing to work in this challenging field.

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Top:Still from the film commissioned as part of AHRC support for the Health Humanities initiative called ‘Talking Heads’ by film maker Gaylan Nazhad. This film highlights the way that medical narrative overrides that of the patient. Above: Image provided by International Health Humanities Network member, Professor Aaron Williamon from Royal College of Music

HEALTH HUMANITIES

International Health Humanities Network

Professor Paul Crawford The University of Nottingham

Working with a range of partners, including the Institute of Mental Health and the US National Institutes of Health, the International Health Humanities Network (IHHN) promotes research and collaboration in applying arts and humanities to advance health and wellbeing. Attracting 140 international members within its first year, IHHN provides a platform for interested parties to forge collaborations between humanities scholars, healthcare practitioners and the public. Its website, www.healthhumanities.org has already attracted thousands of visitors and is set to host major archives in this emergent field. It aims, says researchers, to “bring the human back into health”.

I am honored and privileged to serve on the Advisory Board of the International Healthcare Humanities Network. Since its inception in 2012, the IHHN has already been profoundly instrumental in fostering movements internationally to promote innovative

and critical inclusion of arts and humanities in medical education and practice.

PROFESSOR GENE BERESIN Clinician Partner, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry/Harvard University

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Art Simulation and Surgical Humanities

Professor Roger Kneebone Imperial College London

Above: Documentation of trauma surgery in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, by David Cotterrell. This eye-witness photograph is one of a series taken by Cotterrell when travelling through Afghanistan’s Helmand Province as a War Artist for the Wellcome Collection.

This project allowed a group of innovative artists, musicians, social scientists and surgeons to explore the creative potential around surgical simulation as an artistic medium. Led by Professor Roger Kneebone from Imperial College London with Professor David Cotterrell from Sheffield Hallam University, a multidisciplinary collaborative network has been established to generate innovative approaches, which, in addition to their own artistic value and interest, seek to offer important insights into the complex relationships between surgery and our wider society.

This pilot project took the unusual approach of challenging orthodoxies through interdisciplinary collaboration. The team explored the benefits to be gained by comparing disciplinary methodologies to

Having direct contact with practitioners of such varying disciplines as clinical surgery, video art and semiotics has been intensely stimulating. I am now looking again at my own work in improvisation and how it relates to audience

perception, ‘usefullness’ and artistic expression, whilst broadening my own working methods and constructing musical strategies.

LIAM NOBLE Jazz Pianist, Composer and Educator

HEALTH HUMANITIES

challenge traditional limitations to communication and empathy.

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Philosophical Communities

Dr Thomas Dixon and Jules Evans Queen Mary, University of London

Top: Philosophy picnic Above: Various members of the London Philosophy Club meeting last year. (Photo Greg Funnell)

The project researched the contemporary rise of grassroots philosophy clubs, asking why these clubs are proliferating, what they do for their members, and what role they can play in society and in public policy (particularly health, adult education and local citizenship). The project launched a website, www.thephilosophyhub.com, which received substantial media coverage, including Radio 4, Financial Times, La Reppublica and Norway’s Morgensbladet. It also organised a one-day seminar at QMUL, bringing

together 25 philosophy club organizers in the first event of its kind as well as a six-week evening course at QMUL on flourishing for members of the public.

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This project was an important step in bringing philosophy club organizers together, providing information on setting up new clubs, and also bringing together the worlds of academic and grassroots philosophy. It helped get a lot of media attention to grassroots

philosophy clubs, which helps us attract new members.

PAUL DORAN National Director, Philosophy in Pubs

Hospital patient and museum facilitator enjoying a handling session as part of the Heritage in Hospitals project

HOSPITALS AND PLACES OF CARE

Heritage in Hospitals: An investigation of the therapeutic and enrichment potential of object handling in hospitals and other healthcare organisations

Dr Helen Chatterjee University College London

Heritage in Hospitals was the first project of its kind to explore the role of handling museum objects as a therapeutic intervention in various healthcare settings, including hospitals and care homes. Using clinically validated quality of life, health and wellbeing scales, alongside detailed qualitative analysis of conversations, the research identified a series of positive therapeutic outcomes including: highly significant improvements in positive emotion, wellbeing and happiness, improvements in patients’ perceptions of their own health and optimism about the role of museum object handling as a distraction from ward life that impacts positively on relationships among staff, patients and their carers.

This project provided a perfect opportunity to work on one of our key aims to develop and nurture more inter-disciplinary partnerships between the Museum and healthcare sectors. It encouraged the understanding that visiting museums and engaging with

museum objects has a place alongside other measures for improving wellbeing and health. HARVINDER BAHRA Community Partnerships Coordinator, The British Museum

Isolated Acts: Theatre in Asylums and Hospitals

Dr Anna Harpin University of Exeter

This networking project documented the secret theatrical histories of psychiatric asylums and hospitals. Dr Anna Harpin and Dr Juliet Foster brought together an international, interdisciplinary team to explore the types of theatre and performance that took place in the twentieth century within psychiatric contexts with a view to rethink contemporary performance practice in this field. The research activities generated a research website (www.isolatedacts.org), a photography exhibition, a research article by Harpin forthcoming in Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, and a co-edited collection by Harpin and Foster forthcoming with Palgrave. The project uncovered a rich and diverse history of performance behind closed doors and laid the seeds for future work in the field.

A still from a RedCape Theatre production

The experiences afforded me through the Isolated Acts meeting were among the most exhilarating professional development opportunities I have had since becoming a faculty member in 1991. The assembly of people from a

variety of professions and mindsets enabled the kind of interaction I wish were – at least in the US – more the norm. While my background is academic theatre, my ability to explore mental illness, performance, identity and culture became far more sophisticated interacting with performers, therapists, statisticians, and philosophers. PROFESSOR SARAH RUDOLPH University of Wisconsin – Marathon County

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Thank you to all the researchers who have submitted text and images.

With thanks also to Dr Philip Pothen and Jessica Clark for producing this booklet.

Front cover

1st row from left to rightDer Rokade (2007) apartment tower in Groningen, Netherlands, architects: Arons en Gelauff. Photo credit: Judy Torrington. Reproduced by kind permission of the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA).

A young patient at University College Hospital handling an elephant tooth from University College London’s Grant Museum of Zoology – photo courtesy of University College London

2nd row from left to rightPeople working at Tablehurst and Plaw hatch community farm in Sussex – photo courtesy of University of Brighton

Still from film commissioned as part of AHRC support for the Health Humanities initiative called ‘Talking Heads’ by film maker Gaylan Nazhad.

Page 10

Photo of Diarmaid Lawlor. © Colin Hattersley Photography

Pages 14Sightlines; documentation of trauma surgery in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, by David Cotterrell. © David Cotterrell

All other images as stated.

IMAGES – ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Published by Arts and Humanities Research Council Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, Wiltshire, SN2 1FL www.ahrc.ac.uk©Arts and Humanities Research Council 2013. Published May 2013. Design by Rumba. Printed by JRS on paper containing 80% post-consumer waste.