During COVID-19, those already living with mental ill health were left grappling with increased isolation, fear and loss when face-to-face support groups stopped as a result of the pandemic.

“It's a miserable time. Lockdown’s miserable. To be able to be taken away from the bereavement and misery and the horribleness and the fear of everything that's going on at the moment in this world.”

Supported by Cultural Recovery Funds, Human Henge Online aimed to discover whether the therapeutic impact of engaging with the ancient landscape of Stonehenge – already evidenced by the University of Bournemouth - would translate to an online experience. 

The evaluation, conducted by me, explored participants’ experience of taking part and identified partner and stakeholder learning to inform the development of future online and remote programmes.

“So, I’ve been ill and, um, I’ve been shielding since a year ago. Wow. So yes, this was the light out of the darkness.”

It used a range of qualitative tools such as online stakeholder debriefs after each session and online participant and stakeholder focus groups. In these focus groups, reflection and discussion were facilitated through images and creative prompts. 

The evaluation captured the experience of participants in the form of a Pantoum – a Malaysian poetic form consisting of a set pattern of repeating lines - compiled from participants’ words shared during the Human Henge Online Evaluation Focus Group.

“Finding people have got, you know, just as much pain and far worse things going on for them. And they’ve had the courage to come along and show their feelings. They’ve really made me know that I’ve got to keep pushing on, even though I don’t feel like doing it.”

The online format of Human Henge Online demonstrated benefits around access and reach, which make it a potential delivery method beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation identified a number of key criteria to successful online delivery and concluded that the Human Henge Online model might be developed and applied to other heritage sites across the UK as part of social prescribing.

“Because of my mental health and physical health, it might not have been possible for me [to attend face to face].” “It’s given me joy.”