Celebrating a decade of the Young Onset Dementia Service

Summer 2021 marks the ten-year anniversary of the establishment of the Young Onset Dementia (YOD) Service.

The YOD Service launched in 2011 when The National Dementia Vision for Wales (Welsh Assembly Government) allocated funds to every Health Board in Wales for the establishment of young onset dementia services.

Each year this vital Cardiff and Vale UHB service provides essential support for around 140 people and their families as they face up to the ever-evolving challenges of living with Young Onset Dementia. In addition, the YOD Service runs the UK’s only dedicated young onset dementia inpatient service at St Barucs Ward, Barry Hospital.

The remit of the YOD Service is to provide care and support for anyone diagnosed with dementia before the age of 65, and continue working with these individuals as they age and the condition advances. People with young onset dementia often experience rapid progression of their condition and have a higher incidence of rarer forms of dementia. Practical and emotional challenges impact family life, relationships, careers, finances, and many other aspects of daily living.

Following a lot of hard work, long hours and tireless ingenuity from colleagues within the service and across the Mental Health Services for Older People Directorate, the YOD Service has successfully grown into an innovative, full multidisciplinary service for younger people with dementia, carers, and families across the Cardiff and Vale UHB catchment area.

The service is based at the Cariad Centre, Barry Hospital, and comprises a specialist team providing post-diagnostic assistance incorporating outpatient reviews, secondary care coordination, individualised therapies interventions, plus a wide range of cognitive stimulation therapy groups and community-based social engagement opportunities offering clients and their carers access to mutual collective support. These efforts were recognised in 2017 when the YOD Service won the coveted Health Service Journal national award for ‘Innovation in Mental Health’.

“Ensuring continuity of care is fundamental,” said Mark Jones, Team Lead at the YOD Service. “People are engaged from the point of diagnosis and continue to receive support across the progression of their condition. Timely intervention means rapidly changing dementia-related mental health, psychological, physical and social care needs are promptly addressed. Independence is sustained, quality of life enhanced, and premature care home placements and hospital admissions are avoided.”

Mark described the past decade as “an incredible experience of learning and growth. We have been humbled by people allowing us into their lives at times of great vulnerability. Listening to the collective voice of our clients and carers has served to steer service development.”

The arrival of the pandemic required the team and its clients to adjust to fresh approaches and embrace new remote forms of engagement. To counter isolation and sustain mutual support, the team has launched weekly remote Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, Tai Chi sessions, and a Carers Support Group.

“During the past year we have perhaps all become aware of our fragility, but also hopefully bolder about our resilience and capacity to adapt,” said Mark. “We've become acutely aware of our interdependence. But if there's an overarching theme, it’s that relationships underpin all that is truly meaningful and sustaining.”