The Memory Service at Tallaght University Hospital which celebrated its tenth anniversary in September, now has over 20 permanent staff, with expertise in neurology and geriatric medicine, as well as nursing, social work, occupational therapy, speech & language therapy, physiotherapy, neuropsychology, and dietetics providing a five day a week Interdisciplinary Geriatric Neurology Memory service.
Now known as the Institute of Memory & Cognition a quarter of patients attending the service are under the age of 65, and this has increased over the last ten years. Before the establishment of this clinic, younger people with memory symptoms had great difficulty accessing a diagnosis and it could take years to get an appointment.
The average length of time between receiving the referral and seeing someone in the clinic is now around four months, and this can be within the month for urgent referrals.
