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Dementia professional support
Our services for dementia professionals
Younger People with Dementia have a range of resources to help healthcare professionals in supporting families affected by young onset dementia. We are keen to work alongside other organisations to ensure that people with a diagnosis are able to live a life with meaning.
Our services are currently available to families living in Berkshire, Surrey Heath, North East Hampshire and Farnham who have been affected by a young onset dementia diagnosis.
If the family you are supporting live in our supporting areas, you can refer them to our services. Please visit our Referrals page.
How we can support you as a professional
Books for dementia
We have written and worked alongside authors to create books that are specially tailored for younger people living with dementia. These books may be useful resources for healthcare professionals to share with the people they are supporting, particularly with our puzzle book, providing activities for care workers to enjoy with the individual.
Admiral Nurse Support
Each of our supporting areas has a dedicated Admiral Nurse who are there to support you and your family whenever you need following a dementia diagnosis. The Admiral Nursing service in Berkshire has been in operation for the past decade and has clearly demonstrated that this bespoke service prevents families from hitting crisis point and reduces residential care admissions for the person with dementia.
Connecting Carers Groups
We run support groups throughout the year to bring carers together, allowing them to share their experiences and support one another. Our main group is called Connecting Carers, which is an informal group that offers the opportunity to pass on advice and provide support. Our charity also gathers an external speaker to attend each session to provide appropriate services and information.
Social Events
Every year our team schedule a calendar of social events which we run exclusively for the families we support. These are called “All Together Now” events, and they bring together our service users from all areas. Previous events have included afternoon teas, day trips, three course meals, discos and barn dances.
Younger People with Dementia also deliver events in the community which are open for everybody to attend. The charity’s annual Christmas Concert is our most highly anticipated event of the year, bringing around 200 people together.
Activity based workshops
Our specialist and professional team provide activity‐based workshops for individuals living with young onset dementia. Our workshops run through the working week, Monday to Friday, and are run in programmes of 6 weeks. This means that the activities offered are always changing to reflect the needs and interests of our service users, with the exception of Harmony Choir, which has been running on Tuesdays since the charity was founded.
Education and Training
We deliver education courses for those diagnosed with young onset dementia and their relatives in conjunction with health and social care professionals from memory clinic services across Berkshire and within Surrey Heath, North East Hampshire and Farnham. We have also provided Cognitive Stimulation Therapy courses, which is a service we are in the stages of planning for 2025.
Empowerment Group
People with experience of living with dementia are often asked by organisations to help them shape and improve their services and products. Some groups come together for support and friendship at the beginning. Many become involved in campaigning and awareness‐raising about dementia. Everyone has a voice. Now we want to make sure that the people we support with young onset dementia can be heard too, at a friendly and informal empowerment group, facilitated by YPWD!
Customised support
It is recognised that not all people wish to participate in group activities or are able to access a group. Younger People with Dementia provide one to one support, where appropriate, so that people are encouraged to choose an activity that is of personal interest to them that can be carried out with the support of one of our support workers.
We can also offer time limited one-to-one support when introducing newly referred people to our services to make the experience as smooth and enjoyable as possible, as we understand joining a bigger group can be daunting at first.
Examples of one-to-one support are going for walks, going out for coffee or lunch, visiting the driving range or attending local community projects. The one-to-one support has facilitated some individuals to volunteer for other charities such as Centre Point, thus promoting the individual’s sense of purpose but also enabling reciprocal support and learning. Using a person-centred approach, we hope that one-to-one support will lead to an individual gaining confidence to join a workshop. In some cases, one to one support can also be offered to aid transition into more suitable community organisations as an individual's needs change.
Micro Groups
A micro-group is delivered in the same way as a workshop but with fewer people and can be easily adapted to meet a person or small group’s specific needs.