The Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (TWAM) wellbeing programme was written to include heritage sessions using a variety of our collections and a creative art output, led by the patients.
Introduction
The Bede ward is an acute admission ward on the St Nicholas Hospital site for men over 18 years who are experiencing a relapse or crisis in their mental wellbeing and require assessment and treatment in hospital.
The TWAM wellbeing programme was written to include heritage sessions using a variety of our collections and a creative art output, led by the patients.
Bede ward project saw TWAM team up with a local street artist to enable the patients to explore the themes of identity and heritage through their personal thoughts and experiences.
The challenge
Patients at Bede ward are experiencing a relapse or crisis in their mental wellbeing and require assessment and treatment in hospital. They are vulnerable, in a clinical environment and staff often struggle to get patients to engage in activities due to the behaviours linked to a patient’s illness and effects of medication. This project aimed to stimulate and encourage patient’s participation in a creative project.
The solution
Working with TWAM staff, hospital team and local street artist Rob Hutchinson, the patients explored what heritage meant to them and their identity, thinking about the local area where they grew up and live. The sessions were then tailored to the interests of the group which focussed specifically around engineering, the development of the shipyards, mining, local industry and employment and took us further back into history to include the building of Hadrian's Wall. We took handling objects from our Working Lives and Roman boxes and delivered a presentation on Bridges of the Tyne among others.
The patients then worked with the artist Rob to create a mural on the wall of the ward that encapsulated these objects and conversations, featuring a miners lamp as the central focus and titled it 'Ray of light, beacon of hope' as they felt that the ward offers that to them as part of their recovery.
How is the new approach being sustained?
TWAM are also installing a display cabinet which will enable the staff to work with patients moving forwards, skilling them in curating their own object collections which will enable activities and discussions for the patients as part of their activity opportunities and supporting their recovery whilst on the ward.
Overall there were 36 engagements from participants for this project.
The project encompassed eight heritage workshops and activities and one visit to our Discovery Museum venue.
The staff remarked that to have between 5-8 participants each week choosing to attend the heritage workshops and for the most part for them to be consistent attendance, was something they hadn’t seen before on the ward.
The staff commented that it was one of the most well attended and enjoyed programmes of activity on the ward.
The staff also observed that they hadn’t realised so many of their patients had an interest in heritage/history and were so knowledgeable.
The below quotes are from staff:
‘It’s a focus point (the mural), people have talked about it when they come in’
‘Having the artefacts there really helped in the sessions’
Quotes from the participants included:
‘It’s an inspirational piece of Art on an otherwise dreary ward, it’s a Ray of Light’ (the piece was then titled as this, following this comment).
‘I didn’t think the mural would be as big as it was and I thought it would be just a spray painter, but he’s a real artist’
‘The sessions have been good, interesting. I liked the things Clara brought in’
Lessons learned
To be flexible to the needs and interests of the group. Planning only week ahead, responding to requests for objects and collections.
Being prepared for the participants behaviour to be changeable depending on the ward dynamics, their personal mental health needs and any unexpected events on the ward.
The patients on this ward are often discharged after approximately 12 weeks so any programmes need to be planned and delivered within that time so that they can participate in the full programme.
Contact
Clara Shield – Assistant Communities Officer, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Email: [email protected]