Introduction
Young onset dementia affects adults under the age of 65. Nationally there are estimated to be at least 70,800 younger people with dementia which means 92 in every 100,000 of the population are living with young onset dementia. According to the Journal of Dementia Care Report (Carter and Jackson June 2022 Vol 30 No 3), 7.5% of all people with dementia developed it under the age of 65. In Berkshire, there are an estimated 679 people living with young onset dementia and 900 in Surrey.
People with young onset dementia often experience a more rapid decline in cognition and quality of life at a time when they may otherwise have expected to be in employment, have an active social life or are raising a family. The same applies to partners and other family members who consequently face social isolation and carer stress. In many cases, carers have to give up work to support their partner and therefore, the ability to provide respite on a daily basis is often pivotal to keeping carers in work. Furthermore, for the person with dementia, lack of appropriate activities can result in an increase in social isolation, apathy, a decline in health and increased risk of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Younger People with Dementia
Our charity was formed in 2012 and has grown year on year, both in the numbers of the carers that it supports and those diagnosed with young onset dementia who attend our age-appropriate weekday workshops across Berkshire and Surrey Heath, NE Hants and Farnham.
Traditional support services provided for those with dementia are designed to meet the needs and expected therapeutic outcomes of older adults and subsequently, access to activities appropriate for younger adults with dementia continues to be limited locally, regionally and nationally. The YPWD model encourages carer respite across the working week, giving all carers the chance to take a break.
You can find out more in our Annual Report and Accounts for year ending March 2023.
Using Our Website
We have designed our website to help different groups of users:
Service Users, Carers and Families
Service users, carers and families will find the following information available:
- Details of all of the services we run directly
- Full details on how people are referred to us
- Answers to frequently asked questions about the condition
- Updates and articles from the charity
If you are in this group and there's something you think we are missing, please get in touch.
Supporters
If you wish to support us in some way we have details of lots of information:
- Details of how join our team of volunteers
- Fundraise for us, perhaps with a challenge?
- For Berkshire and Surrey based companies, we are an ideal corporate charity partner
- Use you skills to help us as a Trustee?
If you are in this group and there's something you think we are missing, please get in touch.
Donors
As a small charity we are always in need of financial support. There are many ways you can help:
- Make a donation now using your credit card
- Fund a legacy that transform the lives of our service users
- Establish a corporate donation or make us your Charity of Choice
If you are in this group and there's something you think we are missing, please get in touch.
Health & social care professionals and researchers
Young onset dementia is a specific area of work and we wish to participate in the study of it as best we are able to:
- Find out how we can participate in studies into the condition
- Access our collated library of online resources (coming soon)
If you are a health and social care professional or researcher and there's something you think we are missing, please get in touch.
Getting a Referral
To use our services users need to be referred to us using one of the processes described in our Referral Pathway page. If you are unsure about any aspect of referral, please get in touch.