Culture, Health and Wellbeing Resources
We provide inspirational resources to share with professionals and communities that can support people's health and wellbeing. The resources are designed collaboratively by museum professionals and specialists from partner organisations to enhance and inspire the work that you do with your people, in your sector.
Museums, Health and Social Care Resource

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 North East Museums 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.
Museum object boxes
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.
Practising Mindful Practice
Practising Mindful Practice is a podcast that 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 series.
Sounds Around

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.
Creativity with Sounds
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.
Museum 2 Museum cycle routes
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.
View our Museum 2 Museum cycle routes and get our there!