Subjective wellbeing in people living with dementia: exploring processes of multiple object handling sessions in a museum setting

Abstract

Background: Dementia care guidance highlights the importance of supporting people living with dementia to access engaging and meaningful activities to promote their quality of life. There is a growing evidence base for the efficacy of heritage settings and arts-based interventions to provide social prescribing opportunities to help support wellbeing in this population. This study extended previous research and explored the potential processes underlying this effect in multiple small group object handling sessions in a museum setting. Methods: A mixed-methods design was used comprising a measure of subjective wellbeing and thematic analysis to explore in-the-moment session content across multiple sessions. Four people with dementia participated in three, one-hour group object handling sessions led by two facilitators. Results: Pre-post wellbeing scores showed increases after each session though this was largely not significant. Qualitative findings provided more compelling results, however, and identified four key themes: facilitating, interest in exploring objects, active participation, and group collaboration; interpretations were made around the dynamic interaction of themes and subthemes over the course of three sessions. Conclusions: This is the first study we are aware of that has taken an in-depth look at multiple museum-based group object handling sessions for people living with dementia. Findings offer ways to optimise object handling sessions for people with dementia by providing in-depth information about the processes involved across multiple object handling sessions facilitated by museum/heritage professionals in a museum setting. This has useful implications for community-based activities as part of dementia care planning and public health programming. The study contributes to a deeper understanding and elucidates the processes that enhance wellbeing for this population who participate in such sessions. It also helps to develop further theoretical understanding about why these types of activities are helpful in community-based dementia care. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Factors Associated with the Participation of Older Adults in Cultural and Sports Activities

“…Involvement in cultural activities contributes to the wellbeing of older persons [21][22][23][24] as it prevents or reduces the incidence of loneliness [20,25] as well as the odds of loneliness among older persons [26]. Cultural activities favor social connectedness and the quality and quantity of social relationships [25][26][27].…”

What is wellbeing and how do we measure and evaluate it?

“…As such, given the assumptions made about wellbeing in the context of mental health from the biomedical perspective, there may be no surprise that wellbeing is often confused and conflated with physical health (Cameron et al 2006;Cronin de Chavez et al 2005;Wheeler et al 2012). There is also often an emphasis on the impact of physical ill-health on psychological wellbeing, with a lack of attention to the social determinants of health such as employment, occupational status or education level (Cronin de Chavez et al 2005), however this literature is starting to reflect the shift in policy focus, as discussed above, with an increasing focus upon the impact of other social interventions on wellbeing (Camic et al 2021;Emerson et al 2021;Rogerson et al 2021).…”

“…Whilst in its broadest use through popular literature and media this may refer to feeling happy or positive, wellbeing is increasingly measured and reported as the outcome of choice in health, psychology, social research, and epidemiology research (Dalingwater 2019;Karimi et al 2021;Patalay and Fitzsimmons 2018;Stampini et al 2021). In particular, it is used to evaluate interventions that aim to improve mental and physical health, ranging from psychological treatments to nature or heritage based interventions (for example, van Ageteren et al 2021; Britton et al 2020;Camic et al 2021;Rogerson et al 2020). However, wellbeing is a broadly applied term across these research fields and disciplines, and may be 2 capturing different aspects of wellbeing and mental (ill)health.…”