Dementia Services: fit for purpose?
Finding out you have dementia is one thing, but then finding services are tailored for people who are much older than you can be an added blow. As researchers, we have found people with young onset dementia (before the age of 65) want to know things that they cannot readily find from existing services. For example, dementia is not just about memory loss and participants in our interviews said they wanted to know the ‘early warning signs’ of dementia so they knew what to look out for and seek help earlier. Others wanted greater psychological support at the point of diagnosis, ideally with someone to be there throughout their dementia journey such as a counsellor.