Chapel House Care In Celebrity Endorsed Covid-19 Book

Chapel House Care, which runs two care homes in Puddington, Cheshire, has been included in a book about life in care homes during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The book, called Bringing The Inside Out, has been published by the arts and literature charity Living Words.

The charity spoke to more than 60 care home residents with dementia, their carers and relatives as part of a pioneering UK-wide project.

They ran weekly sessions with carers from 15 British care homes – including The Chapel House and Plessington Court – to enable the words of people with dementia to be part of the book.

Each person’s sounds and words were captured using their Listen Out Loud Methodology, allowing people’s words to be captured as they spoke them – making for an unconventional use of grammar and arrangement on the page.

The book was published this week and has been supported by celebrities and leading figures in dementia care including National Care Forum and Dementia Research Centre as well as the actors Brian Cox and Christopher Eccleston.

Chapel House Care owner Cathrina Moore, an Admiral Nurse, said: “We feel privileged to have worked on this book with Susanna and her team and I believe it will have a lasting impact.

“It has been an exceptionally difficult time for all care homes and their residents but so important for the year 2020, Covid-19 and its devastating impact to be captured.”

Susanna Howard, Living Words founder, said: “This book will resonate not only with other people in care homes, their loved ones and professional carers but with all of us as a society.

“They give us an insight into how things have really been in care homes across the UK. These words have tremendous power – and the act of truly listening will drive all of us forward to deliver ever better care.”

Vic Rayner, Executive Director of the National Care Forum, said: “At last, carers of people with dementia are being given a voice. These extraordinary people, so often taken for granted, are in the front line of the fight against this outcast of diseases. Carers are indispensable and need to be heard. This book is an essential first step towards that.”