Voices from the Frontline: Care Homes, Dementia and Covid-19

About this in-person event

When UK care homes locked down in March 2020, no-one other than the staff who worked within them would be allowed back inside for almost a year. By then 40,000 residents would have died.

What was life in care homes for people with dementia really like during that year?

Based on original research carried out with 20 members of the dementia workforce, Voices from the Frontline is a piece of verbatim theatre which tries to capture the experience of this unprecedented year. Weaving together the spoken words of those who were on the inside, it creates both a devastating picture of loss, and a moving tribute to the essential but largely unnoticed labour that kept our care homes running.

The performance will be followed by a panel Q&A about the making of Voices from the Frontline, what we need to learn from the coronavirus pandemic, and its legacy for the long-term dementia care sector.

The research on which this performance is based was carried out with funding from the University of Bradford's Covid Response and Recovery Scheme, by Andrea Capstick, Ana Barbosa, Giorgia Previdoli and Clare Mason of the University's Centre for Applied Dementia Studies. It has been translated into theatre with the help of Richard Warburton, Artistic Director, Theatre in the Mill.