Scaling-up Human Henge: Using prehistoric cultural heritage sites to enhance mental health well-being in marginalized communities

Using cultural heritage assets as the basis for enhancing health and well-being is well established in Britain. Although health benefits are clear, many programmes have been small-scale, poorly evaluated, and costly to run. Using a network of academic and third-sector partners, Scaling-up Human Henge will co-produce a place-based Culture Heritage Therapy Programme (CHTP) that will be evaluated and documented so that it can be rolled-out nationally. The focus is on prevention and intervention through social prescribing to enhance the well-being of people living with long-term common mental health disorders (CMHDs). Heritage assets in the form of prehistoric ritual landscapes, such as the henge monument at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, will be used because similar places are widely scattered across Britain, are easily accessible and safe, and provide ideal venues for structured performative engagements with cultural heritage.

Mental health well-being is one of the most pressing issues facing society today. The NHS estimates that one in four people in Britain will experience poor mental health at some point in their lives, and living with a mental illness can lead to isolation and effect personal and social relationships. The cost of mental illness in England has been put at £105 billion per year. Finding solutions, whether clinical or through wider community activities and social prescribing, is high on the political agenda, headed by UN Sustainable Development Goal 3 on health and well-being to be achieved by 2030. Using heritage assets fits well with new and emerging local and national health intervention structures.

This innovative and original project based at the universities of Bournemouth and Exeter includes collaborations with the Avon and Wiltshire NHS Mental Health Trust; English Heritage; Rethink Mental Illness; and the Restoration Trust. As a multi-disciplinary project it brings together specialists in healthcare, health economics, public services, social archaeology, heritage studies, and anthropology to advance knowledge and practice in relation to using heritage assets to enhance mental health well-being as part of public health policy. Scaling-up Human Henge addresses issues around combating health inequalities, treatment within communities, the reduction of social isolation, the value of therapeutic intervention to society, and how a network of locally-based CHTPs can be made to work from grass roots through to a strategic level on a national canvas.

Building on the results of a Heritage Lottery funded study known as Human Henge, as well as other related projects, the highly experienced project team led by Professor Tim Darvill and Dr Vanessa Heaslip will co-produce a CHTP involving creative activities and participatory events at ancient sites. This will open up new ways of experiencing heritage in order to create and build relationships, stimulate self-awareness, and make connections across a range of social and physical environments. The co-produced CHTP will be run as a Pilot Study to evaluate the programme in terms of its delivery, effectiveness, scalability, and cost-consequences. Individuals with long-term mental health issues will participate, taking part in varied activities on-the-ground and on-line, including drawing, singing, dancing, making things, and thinking about the power of place. Their experiences will be formally evaluated using nationally recognized quantitative and qualitative measures, and those that wish to will be involved in reviewing and revising the programme, and analysing what the overall benefits are in economic and social terms. Using our experiences, good practice guidelines to support the development and delivery of future CHTPs will be co-produced and shared with heritage organizations. The guidelines will include advice for staff facilitating cultural therapy as well as suggestions for delivering successful CHTPs at ancient sites.