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

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.

A mixed-methods design was used comprising a pre-post measure of subjective wellbeing and an inductive 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.

Pre-post wellbeing scores tentatively corroborated subjective wellbeing scores by showing improved wellbeing after each session though this was largely not significant due to low power resulting from the small sample size. Qualitative findings identified four key themes: facilitating, interest in exploring objects, active participation, and group collaboration. Tentative interpretations were made around the dynamic interaction of themes and subthemes.

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 my 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. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

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. The study contributes to a deeper understanding and elucidates the processes that enhance wellbeing for people living with dementia 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.