Watch the film
Film · 16:9 · 180s
The complete film. 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
Fragment details →A project by Storyground for Health Justice
A Person Until the End
The film, the people behind it, what the evidence shows, and what needs to change — all of it, in one place.
About this film
PLACEHOLDER — ~200 words, authored by Storyground with HJ. Not generated. Should cover: what this film is, who Sidney is (and that Sidney is an amalgam, not one person), and why it was made.
How we listened
PLACEHOLDER — ~250 words, authored by Storyground with HJ. Not generated. Should cover the listening report process: who was spoken to, over what period, and how the story was assembled from many accounts.
Six things this film is about
The film moves warm to cool and back — home, into the system, and out the other side.
What else we heard
PLACEHOLDER — ~250 words, authored by Storyground with HJ. Not generated. On the breadth beyond Sidney: the patterns that recurred, the range of experiences. This is the section that stops Sidney reading as *the* story rather than *a* story.
The evidence
stat · into-the-system
58 beds per 1,000
Down from 77 a decade ago, while that population has grown.
stat · into-the-system
The waitlist has tripled
More people waiting, for longer, with fewer beds available.
stat · into-the-system
284-day average wait
Just over nine months.
stat · into-the-system
+82% wait from the community
From 101 days to 183 days.
stat · into-the-system
The hospital wait has doubled
From 34 days to 70 days — spent on an acute ward, not at home.
stat · into-the-system
45% admitted straight from hospital
Placement decided during a crisis, not planned.
stat · into-the-system
+25% emergency visits
Over the past decade.
stat · sedation
28.9% on antipsychotics
National average 24.4%. Recommended target 15%.
stat · sedation
Rising every year, while monitored
Up from 24.7% in 2019/20. Publishing the numbers has not changed them.
stat · sedation
6% physically restrained
Against 4.7% nationally, and a 3% benchmark achieved in Ontario.
stat · could-be-different
$15k against $100k
Home support costs roughly a seventh of a bed, and is what most people say they want.
Definition
explainer · purple-dot
What a purple dot actually is
Not a clinical finding. An administrative staff-safety flag, applied without accountability and very hard to remove.
explainer · into-the-system
The laws that decide
Three pieces of BC legislation determine when a person's choices can be overridden, and how easily.
Proof
What needs to change
ask
Fund home support properly
Most people want to stay at home, and it costs a fraction of a bed.
ask
Make emergency and acute care dementia-accessible
Bright light, noise and speed are not neutral. For a person with dementia they are the cause.
ask
End default restraint
Chemical and physical restraint are used as first responses, not last ones.
ask
Make consent mean something
Discretion under the Mental Health Act and Adult Guardianship Act is wide and rarely reviewed.
ask
Stop treating families as obstacles
The people who know someone best are routinely the last consulted.
ask
Independent oversight, with lived experience at the centre
Labelling, restraint and consent overrides operate with no external monitoring and no route of appeal.