River City actress takes lead role in short film on care home crisis
RIVER City’s Barbara Rafferty takes the lead in a powerful new short film made during lockdown charting the real-life experiences of care home workers and families separated through visiting restrictions.
The actors and writers involved in “Take Me With You’” shared family and friends’ accounts for the film, which was funded by the Dementia Services Development Trust and marks the start of World Alzheimer’s Month.
Personal accounts were enriched by newspaper coverage detailing the devastating impact of the pandemic on the care sector, including widely reported shortages of PPE, which is said to have led to some staff resorting to wearing bin bags as protection.
Around 2,000 elderly Scots are thought to have died in care homes, while the Scottish Government is facing pressure following claims dozens
were transferred from hospitals without being tested.
In the film care home manager Erin, talks of, “20 new (hospital) admissions this week, none tested” and describes how residents shout and call for friends and family, “as if they have been abandoned”.
Rafferty, as Barbara, the care home resident, is seen looking at an 18th birthday card, confused about the changes in behaviour of staff as
cases of the virus rise. “I’m all wrong, something is happening,” she says. She is later seen banging on the window of her room, shouting for help.
The film was directed by Stuart Davids and Neil Leiper with music by Patrick Doyle. In a statement they said: “All of this work is dedicated to all those affected by Covid-19 and dementia in care homes, whether residents, families or workers. We honour those who died before they should.”