film
A Person Until the End
Film · 16:9 · 150s
A documentary animation about what happens when a person with dementia enters a system built to manage risk rather than see people.
The complete piece
View fragment →A Person Until the End
The complete film — and the frames it turns on.
still
The dot
Still · 1:1
Board 39. The mark is placed. The hero frame of the project.
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Two chairs
Still · 16:9
Board 14.
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Both chairs
Still · 16:9
Board 73.
The story
Every chapter, in the order the film tells them.
chapter · 16:9
chapter
Life Before — The Light
An architect teaches a seven-year-old to watch how light moves across a floor.
chapter · 16:9
chapter
Life Before — The Garden
A garden you can't draw a plan for, and a joke that lands a beat late.
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chapter
Still Themselves
A dementia diagnosis. Then three years in which almost nothing changes.
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chapter
The Fall
One night, an ambulance in the driveway, and the speed of everything that follows.
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chapter
Into The System
A person whose world ran on rhythm, placed somewhere with none at all.
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chapter
The Purple Dot
Confusion and fear are written down as aggression. A purple dot is added to Sidney's chart and room door.
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chapter
The Sedation
Something has been started, to keep them calm. It was the best next step.
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chapter
Disappearing
More medication means more confusion, which means more medication.
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chapter
The Garden, What If
What if, that first night, there had been a quieter room and a cup of tea.
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chapter
A Person, The Entire Time
They could still be here. Making a lame joke. Reminding me to watch the light.
The evidence
This isn't one story. It's a documented pattern.
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Antipsychotics without a psychosis diagnosis
BC's rate sits well above both the national average and the recommended target, and has risen every year.
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long-term care beds per 1,000 people aged 75 and over in BC
Down from 77 a decade ago, while the population of that age has grown.
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a year for daily home support, against a long-term care bed
Home support costs roughly a seventh of a bed, and is what most people say they want.
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increase in emergency department visits by people aged 75 an
Over the past decade.
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of long-term care admissions now come directly from hospital
Placement decided during a crisis, not planned.
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of BC long-term care residents are physically restrained
Against 4.7% nationally, and a 3% benchmark achieved in Ontario.
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of rising antipsychotic prescribing, every year, while being
Publishing the numbers has not changed them.
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days is the average wait for a non-urgent long-term care adm
Just over nine months.
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increase in wait time for placement from the community
From 101 days to 183 days.
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the wait from hospital has doubled
From 34 days to 70 days — spent in an acute ward, not a home.
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the long-term care waitlist has tripled in ten years
More people waiting, for longer, with fewer beds available.
What needs to change
ask
Independent oversight of labelling and restraint
Alert policies operate with no external monitoring and no route of appeal for the person labelled.
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Make consent mean something
Discretion under the Mental Health Act and Adult Guardianship Act is wide and rarely reviewed.
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Make emergency and acute care dementia-accessible
Bright light, noise and speed are not neutral. For a person with dementia they are the cause.
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End default restraint
Chemical and physical restraint are used as first responses, not last ones.
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Stop treating families as obstacles
The people who know someone best are routinely the last consulted.
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Fund home support properly
Most people want to stay at home, and it costs a fraction of a bed.