Information for Heritage sites

If you work at a heritage site in Nottinghamshire, you are playing a vital role in the social and economic success of our county. Engaging with an elderly audience can help increase your income.

If we focus on simply on the elderly living within care homes, unless it is a specialised facility, the residents of care homes are generally aged 70+ with very mixed abilities and needs. Some will be in a care home because they have dementia, some because they are physically disabled or on respite, and others have chosen to be in in a care home simply because they don’t want to have to look after themselves any more.

But days can be long in a care home and boredom and loneliness prevalent – and as one resident quoted ‘We have nothing to do, and all day to do it in.’

This is where as museum and heritage providers, particularly those with social history collections within living memory, you can play a massive part in reversing these effects and help be part of our Living Memories initiative. 

Elderly people love verbally and visually reminiscing as it connects them to their past. Getting them out to your site will mean income for you but you must make it easy for them to visit you.

The guidance below gives advice on welcoming the elderly to your heritage site and the benefits for you:

• How engaging with the elderly can increase your income [PDF]
Use this guidance to understand how you can benefit from engaging with an elderly audience to increase your income.

• Using Reminiscence with your elderly visitors - quick checklist [PDF]
Heritage sites, especially those with social history collections within living memory, are perfect tools to help your elderly visitors reminisce. Use this document as a starting point.

• Accessibility for elderly visitors - quick checklist [PDF]
Use this quick checklist to start your thinking on making your heritage site more accessible for elderly visitors.

• Accessibility for elderly visitors - detailed checklist [PDF]
Use this detailed checklist to begin a detailed plan on making your heritage site more accessible for elderly visitors. This does not replace an audit carried out by an experienced assessor.

• Example attraction accessibility checklist [PDF]
This is an example attraction accessibility from a Scottish attraction. Use this as a guide to write your own.

We interviewed carers and families of elderly people about what they needed from heritage sites to make them more likely to visit. Watch the video: