Young-onset dementia

The group of younger people with dementia is growing and these patients often have a different type of dementia than people over the age of 65.

The YOD Molecular Consortium conducts research on better recognition of young-onset dementia by developing new tests to measure behaviour, social cognitive skills, language and perception. Furthermore, the study is untangling the underlying mechanism by identifying biological characteristics of specific areas of the brain and using artificial intelligence to create models linking clinical and biological characteristics. This accelerates diagnostics and the development of new therapies.

Another consortium, YOD INCLUDED, will study the cause, diagnosis, care and treatment of young-onset dementia. They hope to gain an understanding of the dementia stage before the onset of symptoms and thus improve early diagnostics and diagnostics in general. The researchers also wish to contribute to better care and support for people with dementia and their loved ones.

A package with meaningful daytime activities has been developed in the SPANkracht project especially aimed at younger people with dementia. The focus of the activities is on social contact, having fun, staying physically active and feeling useful. This package focuses on the person with dementia, with the informal carer or healthcare professional being available for support via UKON. Thanks to follow-up funding, modules have been developed to also teach case managers to think in terms of possibilities and to make the care for people with dementia and their loved ones more person-centred. The modules and the corresponding toolbox are available through the Research Centre Innovations in Care of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences and UKON.

An online programme that was developed as part of a European consortium has been further rolled out and adapted to the Dutch situation in the RHAPSODY project. The programme is called ‘Online training young-onset dementia’ and has been made available on the dementie.nl platform. The programme was evaluated using follow-up funding. The evaluation showed that the training is in line with the needs of informal carers.