The impact of including carers in museum programmes for people with dementia: a realist review

ABSTRACT

Background: “In the moment” museum programmes for people with dementia (PwD) are an increasingly popular way of supporting people to live well. Most programmes include carers, though it is not well understood what effects, if any, their inclusion has. This review aimed to understand how including carers in museum programmes impacts the PwD, the carer, and the relationship between them.

Methods: A realist review of peer-reviewed and grey literature was conducted to develop theory in answer to the research questions.

Results: Twenty-three documents were included and 15 theory statements were developed within four themes: seeing the PwD in a new way, shared respite, excess disability, and reduced social isolation.

Conclusions: As both positive and negative impacts were found, it is important to consider that programmes may not be beneficial for all dyads. The review offers recommendations to support positive outcomes for dyads, highlights gaps in the literature, and suggestions for further research.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia
• museums
• carers
• realist review

Acknowledgments

We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments which helped us improve this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Dr & Mrs Darlington Trust as part of PhD funding. IL’s contribution to this independent research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health and Social Care;Dr & Mrs Darlington Charitable Trust PhD studentship