Caroline Swarbrick

Background: As people work to older ages, there is greater risk of age-related morbidities developing whilst in employment. Age-related dementia, cognitive impairment, or young-onset dementia may be diagnosed during an individual's working life. Objective: This rapid review aimed to identify and synthesise the types of supports and interventions described or implemented for people diagnosed whilst working. Methods: A rapid review was conducted with searches across three databases: MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus and grey literature sources. Articles were screened against the inclusion criteria. Results: Fifteen articles and five grey literature sources met the inclusion criteria. The literature originated from high-income settings in Europe, Canada, Japan, and Australia. The evidence base was predominantly qualitative and exploratory. Identified supports were grouped by type and level: individual (reasonable adjustments, assistive technology), relational (colleague, managerial and HR support; training), and organisational (policy, legal frameworks, multi-agency coordination, including occupational health). Identified support measures were either implemented in practice or recommended. Conclusion: The review identified a foundation of workplace support for employees living with neurodegenerative cognitive impairment. However, both the type of support available and its implementation varied across employers. Greater consistency in the provision of support is needed to ensure that employees’ needs are met during a period of considerable workplace uncertainty. Individual, relational, and organisational supports may extend workforce participation and promote wellbeing among people living with neurodegenerative cognitive impairment. Embedding support across multiple levels may help workplaces advance inclusive employment practices that recognise and accommodate neurodegenerative cognitive impairment.

Background: There is growing concern that repetitive brain injury from high impact sports participation may be a risk factor for dementia, and brain injury has been linked to younger age of dementia onset. People with young-onset dementia often have unique needs and challenges, requiring support that is tailored to their age and interests; therefore, it is important for collision sporting worlds to have insight into whether young-onset dementia risk is an area of concern for their alumni. The aim of this review was to evaluate observational studies to ascertain the nature of association for young onset dementia and high impact contact sports in current empirical literature. Method: Five databases were searched up to November 2025 with terms covering sports associated with concussion risk, including a wide variety of combat sports, team based high-impact and collision sports, and individual sports associated with high concussion risk, along with progressive neurodegenerative pathologies and as terminologies relating to concussion. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they included a measurement of a clinically diagnosable dementia in their samples and participants associated with a high impact contact sport. Analysis grouped studies based on comparability to young-onset dementia, either directly (group 1) or through a mean age below 65 (group 2). Due to heterogeneity of study methodology, a narrative synthesis was adopted to report the findings of the review. Results: Eight studies were eligible for inclusion, consisting of 7,385 participants. Studies largely focused on soccer and American football, but cycling and ice-hockey were included in two studies. Most studies identified dementia through self-reporting ( n = 5), but telephone assessment alongside self-report ( n = 1), and assessment of medical and death records ( n = 2) were also utilised. NFL (National Football League) players may be at an increased risk of developing dementia at younger ages compared to the general population. Findings on association football were suggestive of an increased risk of dementia for younger people; however, a sensitivity analysis suggested this evidence is not consistent. Conclusions: Existing evidence on the impact of sport-related brain injury and young-onset dementia is very limited to date. The sport and dementia literature may not be reflective of the experiences of those aged below 65. Future research should place emphasis on the concern around athletes at a young age reporting dementia diagnosis, as well as considering additional sports, countries, and demographics.

The significance of community mental health workers in coordinating hospital discharge of patients with diagnosed mental health conditions is globally recognised, yet research on their experiences is scarce. This study contributes to knowledge through a qualitative empirical intrinsic case study of community mental health workers' experiences. This study aimed to explore community mental health workers' experiences of care‐coordinating patients diagnosed with mental health conditions discharged from the hospital into community mental health integrated services. Guided by constructivist inquiry, the qualitative study focused on co‐constructing meaning to understand community mental health workers' experiences in care coordination. Two theoretical lenses informed the study: Ecological Systems Theory, to understand multi‐level influences, and Normalisation Process Theory, to explore how care coordination practices are embedded in discharge processes. Fourteen community mental health workers aged 18 and above were recruited from one NHS Trust in Northwest England from October 2021 to June 2022. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews, audio‐recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using reflective thematic analysis, generating themes and subthemes. Analysis identified 13 subthemes grouped into four major themes: (1) Experiences of collaborative working; (2) Challenges and enablers to care coordination; (3) Experiences of organisational system and culture; and (4) Community Mental Health Workers' personal experiences of professional growth. Findings highlight poor communication, staff shortages, high caseloads, limited community mental health services, and challenges in care coordination. The study provides valuable insights for improving community mental health workers' clinical practice and informs future research and policy development in community mental health care.

The focus on managing problems that can arise for older adults has meant that extant HCI and Ageing research has not given the concepts of 'age' and 'ageing' the explicit theoretical attention they deserve. Attending to this gap, we critically examine a ten-year corpus of CHI publications through the lens of an existing typology which we have further developed to analyse how age is understood, interpreted and constructed in the field of HCI. Our resulting multidimensional typology of age in HCI elucidates the distinctive characteristics of older adults considered when designing with and for this user group, but also highlights the need for a more critical, reflexive, social constructivist approach to age in HCI. Applying this approach, we explore age as a multidimensional system of stratification to better understand the phenomenon of the age-based digital divide.

Musical improvisation is a generative process of spontaneously creating music ‘in the moment’. For people with young onset dementia, musical improvisation provides an extended opportunity for creative self-expression and connection to one’s own body and life story. Using visual research methods, including video elicitation interviews, this paper explores the ‘in the moment’ musical experiences of five people living with young onset dementia who took part in a 15-week improvised music-making programme (Music in Mind). We frame the exploration of the group’s musical experiences through the emerging lens of ‘care aesthetics’—a concept that identifies the sensory relations and embodied practices between two (or more) people in a caring relationship. In the context of this analysis, we look to the caring practices by, with, and between people living with dementia, their family members, and the musicians who lead the programme and the relationship of these practices to feelings of self-expression and meaningful connection. Musical improvisation has the potential to support the psychological, social, and spiritual wellbeing of people living with young onset dementia. In applying a lens of care aesthetics, it is possible to observe the micro-level experiences of people living with dementia and their family carers.

Background: People with dementia and unpaid carers need to go through a social care or carers needs assessment to access and receive subsidised or fully-funded social care. With no previous evidence, this qualitative study aimed to provide insights into the access to, experiences of receiving and conducting social care or carers needs assessments, and access to social care. Methods: Unpaid carers of people with dementia and professionals conducting social care or carers needs assessment living or working in England were interviewed remotely about their experiences between April and August 2023. Topic guides were co-produced with two unpaid carers, and both were supported to code anonymised transcripts. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings: Twenty-seven unpaid carers ( n = 21) and professionals ( n = 6) participated. Four themes were generated: (1) Issues with accessing needs assessments, not the process; (2) Knowledge of needs assessments and the health and social care system; (3) Expectations of unpaid carers; and (4) Post-assessment unmet needs. The most prominent barriers unpaid carers and their relatives with dementia encountered were awareness of and access to needs assessment. Unpaid carers were mostly unaware of the existence and entitlement to a needs assessment, and sometimes realised they had participated in one without their knowledge. Professionals described the pressures on their time and the lack of financial resources within services. Conclusions: To facilitate improved access to dementia care and support for carers, the pathway to accessing needs assessments needs to be clearer, with better integration and communication between health and social care.

Background Caring for someone with moderate to advanced dementia within a domestic home setting can be burdensome and time-consuming. To ensure the effectiveness of care planning and delivery, especially towards the end of life, understanding the nature and impact of such caregiving on the family carer is important. Synthesising existing research will allow greater insight into this experience. Review question ‘How do family carers describe their experience of providing home-based care for people with moderate to advanced dementia?’ Design A narrative synthesis of qualitative research exploring the experiences of people with moderate to advanced dementia and their family carers was conducted. Databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsychINFO, Web of Science and Academic Search Complete) were searched from 1984 to 2020. Similarities and differences between papers were grouped using textual narrative synthesis. Findings This paper reports findings from a PhD thesis (James, 2021). Included papers (n=17) incorporated those focused on caring for people with advanced dementia (n=8), and those with moderate dementia (n=9). Family carers reported an experience of loss, burden, and grief. Experiences of internal conflict also led to psychological distress. These experiences had a negative impact on the general health of the family carer. Improvement in the family carer’s inter-relationships and the feeling of being useful or having a sense of meaning were reported as positive aspects of caregiving. Conclusion A complete description of family carers’ experiences may be inadequate in conveying an acknowledgement of dementia as an illness within the domestic home. Their justifications and determinants for balancing family carers’ challenges and distress to morals also remain unclear. Further research is required to ascertain how family carers may proportionally balance their personified loss with their personified value earlier in the disease trajectory.