UK charity Brighter Together has organised an intergenerational play involving care home residents and nursery children to mark Dementia Awareness Week.
The play, which took place yesterday (17th May), was a joint initiative between actress Amanda Root and Polly van Marken, founder of Brighter Together, an intergenerational charity that brings together older adults with early years children for regular, structured, activity-based sessions.
Children from Greenwood Nursery and residents of Dalemead Care Home (both based in Twickenham, London) took part in the play. The care home hosted the event.
Titled The Other Pond, the play was scripted by Nick Warburton, a British screenwriter and playwright who has written stage plays, and television and radio scripts for series including Doctors, Holby City and EastEnders. The Other Pondtold the story of two sisters who took a trip to the local park, meeting a variety of interesting people along the way, intertwined with reflections on their childhood.
The initiative shone a light on the benefits of intergenerational activities for children and elders, including those living with dementia.
Intergenerational activities have been proven to have extraordinary benefits for older participants, such as improving well-being and cognitive functioning as well as tackling social isolation. But there are also numerous benefits for the children involved, including improving confidence, communication skills, concentration levels and developing their sense of empathy and understanding of others.
The nursery children and care-home residents joined together to rehearse and explore themes within the play, in addition to creating pieces of artwork for the set.
Polly van Marken, Founder of Brighter Together, said: “Working with this group has been such a privilege. It’s been fantastic to listen to the discussions between the children and older adults and see their relationships strengthen through working together to produce such a beautiful play.
“The whole process really demonstrated the value that those at either extreme of the age spectrum bring to our community. Older people and children have so much to offer, both to each other and, as I’m sure the audience will attest, to the whole of our society. For those living with dementia, we’ve seen their demeanour improve dramatically during the sessions we’ve had together. Even if short-term memory of the workshops is compromised, staff have noted that the improvement in well-being for residents has lasted for hours after the workshops.
“We’ve had so much fun and laughter in putting on this play, and we very much hope that we’ll be able to work with more nurseries and care homes on similar projects.”
Alongside Root, other actors who appeared in the play included Rebecca Mondadori, Julia Taylor and Laura Power, as well as the nursery children and care home residents. In the audience were care home residents and staff, family members of the performers, and other local care home and nursery staff, with a view to more plays being hosted through future partnerships.
Sarah Withey, Activity Coordinator at Dalemead Care Home, said: We have been so grateful to be involved in this fabulous project. It’s provided our residents with a wonderful opportunity to be meaningfully engaged, to have fun and to experience a live theatre production. It’s been such a joy to witness how our residents have thoroughly enjoyed spending time with the children, actors and staff from Brighter Together. A real sense of community has been nurtured in the sessions leading up to the performance. It’s been such a happy and positive experience. It means the world to the residents that people from our community have come into Dalemead to make their day. We are grateful to everyone involved for making it possible.
