BBC Documentaries

Granddad, Dementia & Me (2017x181)

Air date: Jul 11, 2017

Documentary following 79-year-old Tom Sivyer after he was diagnosed with vascular dementia, filmed by his grandson Dominic. Shot over two years, the film is told through Dominic's eyes as he struggles to look after his grandad while, at the same time, his grandparents' relationship begins to suffer as a result of Tom's disease. The film captures Tom's rapid mental decline and the attempts of his family to care for a once fiercely independent and proud man. But when the family is unable to cope with Tom's worsening moods and behaviour, Dominic follows his grandad as he is temporarily sectioned into a psychiatric ward. Over the following months, Tom is moved from one family home to the next, and then into a nursing home, before being temporarily sectioned again. The film also highlights the effect on Dominic's grandma Pam who, at 82 years old, is finding it almost impossible to live with the increasingly erratic Tom.