"You come because it’s an interesting place” : the impact of attending a heritage programme on the well-being of people living with dementia and their care partners

Innes, A; Scholar, HF; Haragalova, J; Sharma, M

Abstract

Promoting access to heritage settings has been acknowledged as a way
to promote wellbeing in the UK for people living with dementia and their
care partners. Yet there is a lack of information available internationally
on the contribution of heritage sites to promote wellbeing and social
inclusion for those living with dementia. This paper addresses this gap by
reporting on the impact for 48 people of participating in the ‘Sensory
Palaces’ (SP) programme run by Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court
and Kew Palaces in the UK. Two primary data sources were used; postsession interviews involving 30 participants (the person living with
dementia and/or their care partners), and 131 sets of self-complete pre
and post session mood questionnaires administered directly before and
after SP session attendance. Analysis of the data sets is presented under
three themes: Enjoyment and Engagement; Connecting and Learning
and Place, Space and Time. The findings demonstrate participants
highly valued the heritage sessions and reported positively on the impact
this had for their individual wellbeing and their relationships with one
another. This paper highlights the opportunity for heritage sites to
contribute to promoting wellbeing for people living with dementia.

Citation

Innes, A., Scholar, H., Haragalova, J., & Sharma, M. (2021). "You come because it’s an interesting place” : the impact of attending a heritage programme on the well-being of people living with dementia and their care partners. Dementia, 20(6), 2133-2151. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220985380

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 10, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jan 30, 2021
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 21, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 21, 2020
• Journal: Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice
• Print ISSN: 1471-3012
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-2684
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Volume: 20
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 2133-2151
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220985380
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301220985380
• Related Public URLs: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/DEM
• Additional Information: Projects : Sensory Palaces