Museums and Health: Handling Heritage Workshop Dr Helen J Chatterjee Deputy Director UCL Museums / Senior Lecturer in Biology, + Dr Linda Thomson, University College London Images © UCL Museums

Why Museums? Many museums are socially inclusive and offer engaging in-reach and outreach programmes Track record in evaluation Most are free and (largely) accessible “Museums and galleries have always served a number of purposes other than the evident one of enabling visitors to appreciate their collections of art and artefacts. They are a site for social interaction and for acquiring and conveying an air of cultural authority. They may provide a cool place on a hot day or a quiet retreat” (Constance Classen 2007: 897) “Museums and galleries are one of the few remaining public spaces where people can discuss, learn about, and reflect on life” (Chris Wood 2008: 2)

Research shows that museums benefit health and wellbeing through: positive social experiences, leading to reduced social isolation opportunities for learning and acquiring news skill calming experiences, leading to decreased anxiety increased positive emotions, such as optimism, hope and enjoyment increased self-esteem and sense of identity increased inspiration and opportunities for meaning making positive distraction from clinical environments, including hospitals and care homes increased communication between families, carers and health professionals Sources: Culture Unlimited (2008) Museums of the Mind project; Davenport & Corner (2011) Ageing, Health and Vitality project; Balshaw et al. (2012) Culture + Health report; Chatterjee & Thomson et al ( ) Heritage in Hospitals project

Museums, Health and Wellbeing Survey Museum/Gallery: Project title: Project contact (leader/coordinator/facilitator) + their job title: Contact details: Summary (aims and objectives): Health/wellbeing outcomes: Learning outcomes: Evaluation or measurement methods used (Formative and/or Summative): Participants (e.g. hospital outpatients/inpatients, care home residents, GP referrals): Project Partners: Length of project (indicate if ongoing): Cost of project (estimate if not known): Funders: Sustainability of the project: Advice/Challenges: Training: Further information:

To explore the psychosocial impact of object handling on patients, carers and staff To examine the variety of patients’ responses re: the influence of social factors; different types of object; different settings To develop an effective protocol for object handling in healthcare settings To understand the impact of museum object handling as a therapeutic or enrichment activity within healthcare Heritage in Hospitals Aims and objectives

Healthcare settings: University College London Hospitals Trust (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 AgeUK Royal Society for Public Health Partners

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 minute handling session Reflect on our experience of museums-in-healthcare

VAS – Visual Analogue Scale (EuroQol, 1990)……… ….to measure subjective wellbeing Heritage in Hospitals Wellbeing Measures

PANAS - Positive Affect Negative Affect (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988)…. …to measure psychological wellbeing very slightlya littlemoderatelyquite a bitextremely Positive MoodNegative Mood Active Alert Attentive Determined Enthusiastic Excited Inspired Interested Proud Strong Afraid Ashamed Distressed Guilty Hostile Irritable Jittery Nervous Scared Upset Heritage in Hospitals Wellbeing Measures

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 Heritage in Hospitals Images © UCL Museums

Negative mood Positive mood Pre-session Post-session Experimental and Control comparisons

PsychiatrichospitalResidentialcare homeNeuro rehab(outpatients)Neuro rehab(inpatients)Gen maleoncologyGen femaleoncologyGynaeoncologyAcute &elderly careSurgicaladmissions Wellness scores

Positive adjective scores PsychiatrichospitalResidentialcare homeNeuro rehab(outpatients)Neuro rehab(inpatients)Gen maleoncologyGen femaleoncologyGynaeoncologyAcute &elderly careSurgicaladmissions

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 Outcomes - Qualitative inductive thematic analysis and grounded theory

Patients were distracted from their clinical surroundings and felt healthier and happier 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 contributed to a best practice manual for care workers, museum professionals and volunteers Conclusions

Heritage in Hospitals project team Helen Chatterjee, Linda Thomson, Usha Menon and Anne Lanceley, UCL Guy Noble, University College London Hospital Arts The British Museum, Oxford University Museums and Reading Museums Service Further information Helen: / Linda: Website: New book – coming soon: Museums, Health and Well-being (Ashgate Press Ltd) by Helen Chatterjee and Guy Noble Acknowledgements Participating museum and gallery staff and their audiences AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council

Museum Object Handling Session: In groups explore and discuss a selection of objects from UCL Museums. Your conversations might focus on….  What are the objects?  What do the objects remind you of?  How do they make you feel?  How might museum activities such as this benefit wellbeing? At the end… 5 mins group feedback on ‘how you think this sort of activity might lead to wellbeing outcomes’