Research - Visiting my Grandad

My experience visiting a specialised dementia hospital.

I visited my grandad due to it being my birthday - the last time I saw him was quite a few months ago so the changes within my granddads symptoms where noticeable to me. He recently got admitted to a hospitalised home where they specialise in my granddads illness and this was my first time experiencing anything like this.

The room where my grandad and other patients where was obviously securely locked so a nurse came and collected us from the entrance of the door and let us in. As soon as the doors opened I honestly felt scared. Id never felt anything like this before, my mum had warned me that going to a place like this wasn't nice and she prepared me for it but I just never expected it to be this bad. There were lifeless bodies pacing up and down the room - maybe about 20 people in the room and about 15 of them where just pacing up and down. after being in so much shock I noticed my grandad sitting down at a table - just staring into thin air. My nana said to him 'Look who's here' and he acknowledged us, but didn't really say much - just kind laughed and was really jolly. My mum would ask him general questions like 'how're you doing/ you alright' and he would answer them on a very basic level. 

My grandad looked a lot older since I last saw him and we'd only been there for about 10 minutes and I just burst out crying, and still my grandad was oblivious. The nurse asked us f we could go and sit on the sofas so my grandad and the other patients could eat their dinner - so we went and sat down where some other patience where near by. I noticed that when I tried to interact wt other patients even if it was just giving them a friendly smile they would literally have no idea and would not acknowledge you at all... once we sat down a patient near by would look at me extremely intimidatingly and just start clapping really loud at me and mumbling under his breathe -- it was quite scary! Another patient continuously moved all the furniture around, even moving tables where patients were eating their dinner off - sometimes you just had a to laugh. Another patient would pace up and down and I could see he was getting quite agitated and he'd frequently hit other patients.

I've never experienced anything like this before and it wasn't a nice situation to be in however I feel like I have learnt a lot about this illness from my visit - I feel like it will be helpful in terms of creating some imagery relating to my experience. I would like to create some nice playful images conveying the symptoms and severity of my granddads illness - I also want to take away the dark side and scariness of the illness making my images appropriate for all ages meaning raising awareness for this illness will be hopefully more successful and younger generations can be more aware of dementia as I have only been aware of the seriousness of dementia about a year ago.

My grandad slept the majority of the time we were there but as long as he knows we care and that we were there that is the main thing.