Culture, Health and Wellbeing Resources

Museums, Health and Social Care Resource
Museum object boxes
Practising Mindful Practice podcast series
Sounds Around
Creativity with Sounds
Museum 2 Museum cycle routes

Use museums as part of your care practice with older people

Download our Museums, Health and Social Care Resource (PDF, 3 MB), designed to support health and social care professionals to use museums as part of care practice when working with older people. 

The resource was created by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) and Northumbria University, Newcastle.

It suggests heritage activities and identifies how these activities could specifically support quality of life, health and wellbeing in older people, for example: pain management, speech, cognitive stimulation, mental health, and social interaction.  

Uniquely, it features searchable clinical and care outcomes that have been coded to categories such as:

• Physical/Mobility
• Social
• Cognitive/Knowledge/Learning
• Mindful/Emotional. 

Museums, Health and Social Care Resource Kits

To accompany the Museums, Health and Social Care Resource, practitioners may loan corresponding Resource Kits containing all of the equipment you will need to run a session. 

Please watch the introductory video below.

These kits have been enhanced through collaboration with Occupational Therapy staff and students from Northumbria University with graded activities designed to be used in clinical and care environments.  

You can borrow kits to help you deliver the following activities from the Museums, Health and Social Care Resource:

• The non-walking tour around Newcastle city centre
• Roman herbs
• Egyptian cosmetics
• Trading of chocolate and tea in the Georgian period
• Cinemas of Tyneside

Watch the playlist below for more information about using these kits.

Find out more

Please contact Joanne Charlton for further information about borrowing a Museums, Health and Social Care Resource Kit.

We have a range of museum object boxes providing original and high quality replica historical artefacts for health and social care professionals to use as part of their care practice with clients. 

Themes include childhood, entertainment, fashion, holidays, work life, and many more.

All of our boxes come with a contents list and interpretation related to each object. All you have to decide is which one best fits the needs of the group you're working with. You can borrow a box for up to four weeks at a time.

Find out more about our museum object boxes loan service.

Practising Mindful Practice supports heritage professionals to better understand the mental health and addiction recovery sector. It also encourages collaboration so that the heritage and health sectors can work together to develop creative programmes that best serve the needs of patients and clients.

Occupational therapists, psychotherapists, mental health specialists, museum and gallery professionals, freelance artists, academics and those with lived experience of addiction recovery are among those sharing knowledge and expertise in interviews across the podcast series.

Listen to the podcast

With thanks to The Baring Foundation

This work has been made possible through funding from The Baring Foundation.

Baring is an independent foundation which protects and advances human rights and promotes inclusion. It believe in the role of a strong, independent civil society nationally and internationally. It uses its resources to enable civil society to work with people experiencing discrimination and disadvantage and to act strategically to tackle the root causes of injustice and inequality.

Sounds Around is a board game using imagery, facts and sounds from Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums' collections and The British Library's heritage sound collections. 

The game is to be used in care settings by staff to support their patients with dementia and brain injuries. The imagery and sounds are designed to spark conversations, unlock memories, and encourage play. It is particularly relevant to Life Story and Biography work although can be adapted for many uses.

It has been developed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums working with Jump Design and in collaboration with health and care professionals and patients from Northumbria Health Care Trust (Mental Health Service for Older People).

If you would like to borrow the Sounds Around board game, please contact: Ben Jones.

These films are designed to give inspiration to health, care and community professionals who would like to use more creativity in their practice. 

Presented by Artist Michael Davies they provide hints and tips about delivering creative sessions using images and sound as inspiration.

Watch the playlist below.

We’re inviting you to get on your bike and visit museums across Tyneside. Cycling can help you get fit and stay healthy. Visiting a museum can also help improve your mental health and wellbeing. 

We’ve connected three museums in Tyneside to 11 miles of public cycleway and two easy rides for beginners or families with young children. Using existing cycle routes, including the Hadrian’s Cycleway Route 72, Byker Link and new inner-city cycle lanes in Newcastle city centre, we’ve created a special Museum 2 Museum cycle route map to guide you.

The routes are mostly traffic-free on flat terrain with short sections of on-road cycle lanes and some short steep sections. Ideal for all cyclists and suitable for all cycle types, we would recommend all tyres apart from full slick or racing bike tyres.

Disclaimer

Outdoor activities involve a degree of risk. Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums accepts no responsibility for any accident or injury resulting from following these routes. Cycling routes change over time. Weather conditions may also affect path surfaces. Please use your own judgement when using the routes based upon the weather and the ability, experience and confidence levels of those in your group.

Route 1: Segedunum Roman Fort to Great North Museum: Hancock

START: Segedunum Roman Fort, Buddle Street, Wallsend, NE28 6HR

1. Join Hadrian's Cycleway Route 72. Turn right.
2. Keep right following Cycleway Route 72 signs.
3. After Byker Waste Recycling Centre cross road directly onto Byker Link Cycleway.
4. Exit Byker Link through underpass. Follow path around Bingo Hall. Keep straight ahead until you reach Shields Road.
5. Dismount and cross pedestrian crossing. Turn left and walk 100 metres past supermarket and garage.
6. After row of shops mount bike. Turn right, then left. At junction turn onto Elizabeth Street. Caution! On-road cycling.
7. Turn right and go under Railway Bridge after Old Coal Yard. Take left onto cycle path.
8. Follow path and turn right onto City Stadium with allotments and playground on right.
9. Join cycle path with Star & Shadow Cinema in front of you. Turn left and follow cycle path until pedestrian crossing.
10. Cross road and follow cycle route signs for City Centre. Caution! On-road cycling.
11. Cross pedestrian bridge over motorway and turn right onto Northumberland Road pedestrian and cycleway.
12. Continue until City Pool and turn right onto John Dobson Street cycle lanes.
13. Cross at pedestrian and cycle crossing onto Civic Centre Gardens.
14. Follow cycle path across gardens, following cycle path across Barras Bridge with Great North Museum: Hancock in front of you.

FINISH: Great North Museum: Hancock, Barras Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4PT

Approx. 5 miles/40 minutes

Route 2: Segedunum Roman Fort to Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort

START: Segedunum Roman Fort, Buddle Street, Wallsend, NE28 6HR

1. Join Hadrian's Cycleway Route 72. Turn left.
2. Follow cycle route until Hadrian Road Metro Station. Cross at pedestrian crossing and continue on route.
3. Follow cycle path down into Wallsend Burn. Keep following cycle route and cross bridge.
4. Turn right onto cycle lane up short steep bank. Caution! On-road cycling.
5. Turn left on cycle path. Keep following Hadrian's Cycleway Route 72 clearly signposted through residential terraced streets.
6. Follow route until you cross A19 dual carriageway.
7. Keep left and follow cycle path along A187.
8. At second roundabout make first right turn. Following cycleway signs, cross at pedestrian crossing into park.
9. Follow cycle route through park and down onto Chirton Dene Quays.
10. Follow clearly signposted cycle route until you reach North Shields Ferry Landing. Cross River Tyne on Ferry (charges apply).
11. From South Shields Ferry Landing turn left and follow cycle route signs, crossing two wharfs.
12. Continue following the cycle route until the end of Wapping Street. Caution! On-road cycling.
13. Make sharp right turn onto River Drive and short steep climb.
14. Take first left onto Green’s Place and follow cycle route until you reach Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort.

FINISH: Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort, Baring Street, South Shields, NE33 2BB

Approx. 6 miles/50 minutes