Reducing young-onset dementia (YoD) assessment waiting times in North Staffordshire Neuropsychology (NSN)

We present a streamlined approach to assessing adults concerned about having a young-onset dementia (YoD) within an outpatient neuropsychology service. The original pathway provided a detailed and lengthy neuropsychological assessment for all referrals despite established low incidence figures of YoD in the general population. High demand for the service inevitably, therefore, led to long waiting lists. To address the identified inefficiencies we re-structured our assessment pathway and introduce the revised version in this paper, including: the rationalised and evidence-based cognitive test battery; the practical implementation of the pathway ‘on the ground’ and the preliminary outcomes. We provide some case examples to illustrate the how the pathway addressed the needs of three individuals with contrasting presentations. We finally consider the future directions and developments which are planned to build on the current pathway.