Podcast: Julie Roche speaks to The Guardian about the impact of Covid-19 on care homes

Julie Roche has spent a number of years being the attentive and wonderful manager of MHA Westbury Grange care home in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire.

Last week (w/c 13 April 2020), Julie devoted an hour of her time to feature on The Guardian’s podcast, Today in Focus, and gave an honest and open look into how Covid-19 is affecting those most vulnerable to it. In it, Julie aptly shares the impact on families, residents, and colleagues alike, focusing on how she and the team are coping in the pandemic.

We are extremely proud of Julie and her open approach to the discussion; in this account she has given a voice to how the care sector is dealing with the outbreak, and also discusses the sad loss of more than a third of residents in her home to this deadly disease.

She speaks of colleagues pulling together in ways she never imagined, the collective approach in which the care home has managed to work cohesively, giving families virtual time with residents, and how the team have managed to keep things as normal as possible despite the unprecedented circumstances.

Listen to Julie’s powerful account of life at Westbury Grange care home during the Covid-19 outbreak below.