Working Life: 'The youngest person with dementia we worked with was 45 — that's heartbreaking'

Gillian Dullea, senior primary care occupational therapist, Dublin South and Wicklow

Fri, 11 Jul, 2025 - 01:00

Catherine Shanahan

“I didn’t know anything about occupational therapy until I went to a careers exhibition in Connolly Hall in Cork about 30 years ago. At the time, I was considering teaching or accounting, but I bumped into some occupational therapists (OTs) and it was clear that they really loved their job.

"The concept of enabling people to overcome disability and live as independently as possible appealed to me.

“The added excitement was that you could only do the course in Trinity College. Thankfully, my mother — whom I ring every day — supported me, and off I went.

“When I qualified in the early ’90s, there were no jobs for OTs in Ireland, so I went to London for a while. Later, I worked on a fabulous project with the Sisters of Charity, helping blind and visually impaired people move into independent and semi-independent living. Then, it was off to the US for a few years, where I came across a lot of dementia clients in private nursing facilities.

“About four years ago, I was working in HSE primary care when my OT manager asked me to set up a memory technology resource room in Dublin south east. We have 24 such rooms nationally, funded philanthropically by Memory Harbour. Our service aims to support the person to stay independent, engaged and living life to the full.

“Most of the people that come to us are over 65. Often families will say there are issues around short-term memory and recall and maybe misplacing things, losing train of thought, or low mood and lack of self-care.

“Our role is to explore their concerns and examine strategies that might benefit them. We advise them on how to put a structured routine in place and what assistive technologies might help. As appropriate, we would invite them to attend one of our cognitive groups.

“The youngest person to come into us was around 45 years old. That’s heartbreaking, especially if there’s a young family. We have a special group for younger-onset dementia, called Harbour Friends. They get to meet people like themselves, can see there’s help and that they can still live a fulfilling life, even with their diagnosis.