What is a memory clinic?

Memory services are designed to assess people, and if they make a diagnosis of dementia, they provide ongoing support and information to patients and carers. They are for people of any age, so they see older people but also working age people with early onset dementia. They are called “memory” clinics because people associate dementia with memory problems, but they deal with the wide range of problems that people with dementia can have.

You will meet doctors, specialist dementia nurses and occupational therapists who can advise on practical things to make daily living easier, and psychologists who advise on testing. When a diagnosis is given, the services aim to help people to live independently and safely.

People can be referred for a range of problems including getting in a muddle with finance and paying bills, getting lost and not being able to find their way to familiar places, losing things in the house and finding it hard to remember names. They might have difficulty following conversations. All of this can lead to anxiety, frustration and anger, and huge stress.

There is a research centre in Glasgow which is called “The Memory Clinic” but this is not the same as the local clinic to which your GP will refer you.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has a memory service national accreditation programme, and the details are here.

Reviewed March 1, 2019