Social care for young onset dementia: raising social workers’ awareness
This webinar introduced a resource that has been co-produced to improve social workers’ understanding of young onset dementia, so that they are in a better position to respond effectively to those living with or supporting someone with the condition. The work was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research for Social Care (RfSC) Programme.
Social care includes support to help someone to live their life as fully as possible and maintain independence, dignity and control. Social workers are a key group, with a role in carrying out assessments of what people living with dementia and their carers need and advising on care plans to meet those needs. However, most social workers have little experience with young onset dementia and may not be aware of the way it affects people’s lives. One carer told us she had to advise the social worker, rather than the social worker being able to advise her.
In this webinar, Julie, a former social worker who lives with young onset dementia, talked about her experiences of social care and the potential for improvement. Professor Jan Oyebode from the University of Bradford provided findings from the DYNAMIC project on social workers’ awareness and experiences with young onset dementia.
The webinar covered the process of co-production and the resulting co-produced resource, designed to help raise social workers’ awareness of the needs of people living with young onset dementia.
View Professor Jan Oyebode’s slides.
View the animation created to raise awareness among social care staff about the social care needs of people with young onset dementia and their families.
Find out more about the DYNAMIC research project.
Webinar date: October 2025