When dementia strikes at an early age

Many people aren’t overly concerned when an octogenarian occasionally forgets the best route to a favourite store, can’t remember a friend’s name or dents the car while trying to parallel park on a crowded city street. Even healthy brains work less efficiently with age, and memory, sensory perceptions and physical abilities become less reliable.

But what if the person is not in their 80s but in their 30s, 40s or 50s and forgets the way home from their own street corner? That’s far more concerning. Of the almost half a million Australians who have dementia, 28,300 (about 6 per cent) have younger onset dementia.