Chatterboxes – Connection and Conversations with HMS Victory
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It has been scientifically proven that engaging with museums and galleries (as well as culture as a whole) can be a real boost to health and happiness, but there can often be barriers to people accessing them in person, perhaps none bigger in recent memory than the COVID-19 pandemic.
During 2021, in response to COVID-19 restrictions, the National Museum of the Royal Navy and the research team of the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth trialled a HMS Victory - themed series of small interactive ‘chatterboxes’ in the dementia ward. Created by the museum and delivered by hospital staff these chatterboxes were a collaborative effort, designed to prompt memories and conversations. The results of the project were plain to see, there was a significant increase in the participant’s communication skills and general wellbeing. So, the museum sought funding to develop these boxes into a permanent resource for the hospital community to use.
In 2022/3, the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) secured funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the Working Together project. The aim of the project was to bring the innovative work of the creative health and heritage sectors together. Kicking off in the Autumn of 2023, six museum and heritage site partners signed up to work on the project from 2023 to 2025, with the goal of developing and embedding health and wellbeing work in museum and heritage settings.
But what are chatterboxes?
For many staying in hospital can be isolating, tedious and unsettling. The Chatterboxes aim to ease this feeling by using the theme of history around HMS Victory as a starting point to find a personal connection with someone. Those interacting with the chatterboxes can explore objects, complete activities and explore connections to the ship in a way we hope will bring comfort. HMS Victory is an icon in Portsmouth and no doubt familiar to everyone reading this piece. It’s worth thinking about your own connections. Did you visit HMS Victory on a school trip? Did you see her while working on the base? Or do you even have a fridge magnet with the ship on? Victory is everywhere.
As part of the Working Together project The National Museum of the Royal Navy have created 5 adult Chatterboxes, each exploring a different theme — A Great Day Out, Meet the Crew, Love Box, An Artist’s Muse and 100 Years in the Harbour. Each box encourages storytelling, memory and connection. For younger patients, a bespoke Chattership transforms playtime into a voyage of discovery. This Chattership is designed as a miniature version of Victory, complete with sailor’s hats, sound buttons to recreate the noise onboard, and “Nelson the Bear” who’s ready for 1805-style doctors’ rounds. Even the exact colour of the real HMS Victory is replicated. The ship features 5 drawers with an array of activities that can be taken out and used at the child’s bedside table.
The content of the boxes was created with the help of many different teams in the museum, alongside its friends and partners. The museum’s tour guides have shared their favourite gruesome facts about the ship that resonate with the public. While the museum’s rigging team used their skills to make a love knot out of the kind of rope that’s used for Victory as part of the Love Box.
HMS Victory is still a commissioned warship with a Royal Navy crew, and even the crew kindly shared their guest book full of VIP signatures and recorded the bosun’s whistle for a box.
These chatterboxes were created with the hospital staff, children, patients and museum teams over 18 months, and these resources will be now used across the hospital in different wards by the Families Liaison teams, Play specialists and Patient Experience.
Laura White, Head of Patient Experience, said: “The Chatterboxes will be a valuable tool in helping us build meaningful connections with patients. By sparking conversation and encouraging engagement, they support emotional wellbeing and play an important part in recovery.”
Frances Usher-Smith, Dementia Matron, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, added: “For patients living with dementia, these resources create opportunities for therapeutic and familiar interaction, helping reduce anxiety and distress in what can be an unfamiliar environment.”
The National Museum of the Royal Navy is proud to work so directly with our local community better, we look forward to seeing what a difference these resources make and seeing where our partnership with Queen Alexandra Hospital takes us next.
Find out more about the National Working Together programme in their final report.