Lead supervisor:
Dr Jeremy Dixon 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Rebecca Oatley
Start date: October 2025 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Social Care, Social Work and Social Policy
Thematic Cluster:
Society and Well-Being Cluster
The Experiences for People Living with Dementia Accessing Museum-Based Activities
The majority of research on museum-based activities for people living with dementia have looked at object handling (e.g. physically handling museum objects) and gallery tours (e.g. a guided tour around a specific gallery with a curator or relevant expert in the field), as these have been shown to improve wellbeing and reduce stress and anxiety for people living with dementia. These interventions are effective when participants physically interact with objects, such as handling items tied to personal or cultural histories, which can evoke positive memories and emotions. Studies on dementia friendly museum-based activities have tended to focus on specific elements of the intervention and participant experience in relation to this (e.g. the experience of object handling).
This project will be looking at the entire experience of accessing dementia-friendly museum-based activities, from start to finish – e.g. how participants found the information about the project (online/in person), wellbeing impacts for participants during sessions, and how participants felt after the activity finished. This is to ensure museum-based activities are suitably established for people living with dementia, and to better understand the barriers and enablers of this relatively new area of research.
Biography
I am a PhD student who is part of the Centre for Adult Social Care Research (CARE) at Cardiff University. My PhD project looks at the experience for people living with dementia who are accessing museum-based activities (e.g. object handling interventions and or guided tours).