Anita’s Nursing Home Stay

The documentary offers rare glimpses into the day-to-day realities of nursing home life in Singapore. To enable her to gain realistic insights into what frail, old residents go through every day, Ms Anita Kapoor was treated like someone who cannot walk, has difficulty swallowing, is incontinent and has dementia. She moved around in a wheelchair, slept in a six-bed ward, was woken up at the crack of dawn and wore adult diapers for a week. To find out what it is like to have severe dementia and be deemed a “high fall risk” like some residents, she was tied to her bed for a few nights – with the help of a “body jacket”. Despite being filmed in one of Singapore’s better-run homes, the documentary highlights several areas that nursing homes could improve, starting with the physical environment, which continues to be over-medicalised and lacks privacy.