Employers should do more to help staff with dementia keep working, according to researchers who aim to give advice to businesses on how to help sufferers.
A study at the West Of Scotland University will provide evidence on what aids would help people stay in employment after a dementia diagnosis.
The two-year project is looking for people who have been told they have dementia or mild cognitive impairment and are still working, or have left within the previous 18 months. Those who wish they could have continued to work are being interviewed about the attitudes of employers and co workers.
Funded by the Alzheimer's Society, the research is being carried out at the university's Institute Of Older Person's Health And Wellbeing, in collaboration with Heriot Watt University and others.
Researchers are interviewing individuals aged 50-69, as well as family members, employers and colleagues.
Responses will be analysed to focus on the attempts they made to cope with their dementia in the workplace and any problems their condition caused for employers and co-workers.
The study is already identifying supports and adjustments that would help people to extend their working lives, as well as the barriers that prevent employers from offering more assistance.
Professor Pauline Banks, lead academic on the project, said there was a pressing need for the research. "While increased life expectancy is to be welcomed, older age encompasses a range of challenges, including increased prevalence of long term conditions, one of which is dementia."
About 800,000 people in the UK have dementia, but Professor Banks predicts this will double within 20 years.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article