Books: Museums, Health and Well-Being

Florence Nightingale believed that engagement with objects helped hospital patients to recover. In her Notes on Nursing of 1860 she said that the “variety of form and brilliancy of colour in the objects presented to patients are actual means of recovery”.

That observation was made over 150 years ago, yet the contribution museums can make to health is only now beginning to be recognised.

This book is a useful guide to current thinking and practice. Museums contribute to a variety of areas of health. Notably, there is public health, which is essentially about creating good health.

In his foreword, Richard Parish, a former chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, observes: “Health and illness are rooted in society and culture plays a major role in determining our capacity for well-being… the relationship between culture and health is indivisible… [and] museums must surely be one of the ‘tools in the toolbox’ for wellbeing in the future.”

The influential Marmot Review of 2010, Fair Society, Healthy Lives, stressed that health is socially determined: in England the poorest people can expect to become seriously ill or experience disability 17 years earlier than richer people. They are likely to die seven years earlier.

Social prescribing

In the area of public health, museums can provide opportunities for people to improve their well-being through social contact and stimulating activity. Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London works with local GP surgeries to offer creative workshops for isolated older people.

This is called Prescription for Art and there is growing interest in “social prescribing” in which health and social-care professionals link patients with non-clinical sources of support.

Social prescribing is most often used to combat isolation and support good mental health; it also is used to help people facing problems such as obesity and dementia. Art on prescription is well established and there is clear potential for museums, but “the concept of museums on prescription… requires some considerable development”.

Museums can play a role in making life more bearable for people who are ill. There is growing experience of serving the needs of people with dementia. Often this is done as part of a museum’s learning or outreach work and not seen specifically as a health-related activity.

One of the book’s key messages is that in order to access health sector funding it will be essential to focus on the healthcare outcomes that museums can offer. It is also essential to work in partnership with organisations with expertise in healthcare.

But, even then, do not expect things to be straightforward in the area of public health. The book warns: “The concept of preventative versus remedial medicine is not new, but for many people preventative approaches to medicine are shrouded in doubt and disbelief. This is for good reason in many cases: as with remedial healthcare, preventative healthcare requires a robust evidence base.”

Museums engagement

Again and again, the book calls for more and better evidence of how and why museums can contribute to health and wellbeing.

There’s some evidence, but very little that meets the health sector’s expectations: “Robust quantitative and qualitative evidence derived from standardised studies, which explain why and how cultural encounters enhance health and well-being.”

A “standardised” study is typically one in which there is a control group that does not experience the “cultural encounter” being examined. That’s a far more sophisticated standard than most museum evaluation – but there are a few examples of such studies.

One was undertaken into the well-being of patients and care home residents. It found that everyone who looked at and discussed photographs of museum objects showed increased well-being, and those that handled objects got the greatest benefit.

More studies like this would help make the case to health and social-care professionals (and funders) that museums can contribute to health care. However, to contribute effectively, there is still the need to understand how and why museums make a difference.

If museums are to change lives in the area of health, they need to take their role seriously. This book is essential reading. As an initial step, it recommends a free report, History to Health, available on the Thackray Medical Museum website.

Maurice Davies is the director of policy and communication at the Museums Association