On Friday, Vamos was invited to perform Taking Care: Out for Tea at Oxleas NHS Trust’s Older People's Mental Health Admin Conference. The conference was for staff whose roles are more focused on administration, but who are often the first person an elderly person will meet on arrival at an NHS service.
Out for Tea, based on material developed during the making of our recent show about dementia, Finding Joy, introduced the conference’s afternoon session. The performance, themed around a trip to a teashop, showed the benefits of positive caring, ways of building empathy and how non-verbal communication can be crucial to interacting and caring for older people. Joy was played by Sarah Hawkins and Danny by James Greaves, with musical accompaniment by Janie Armour.
The delegate audience was attentive and warm and the performance was received with both understanding laughter, and even a few tears. We’d like to thank Oxleas NHS Trust for inviting us to be part of such an important conference, and especially Helen Jones for the warm welcome, excellent organisation, and positive feedback.