Hi Harold
I was 43 and my wife was 50 when her symptoms of mixed dementia started.
I cared for her until she was 61 when she went into care, where she still is.
Next year we will have been married 40 years, and we will have been a couple for 42 years.
To be honest, I don't think age has much to do with it.
Yes and no, in my opinion - and we can all simply give our opinions on our own situations and others we may have observed, on Talking Point.
Where there is a specific challenge for families afflicted with younger person's dementia, is that one or both may have been/may be employed.
While it is possible to remain employed while caring, depending on the stage the person is at, it is not easy, and there comes a time when work becomes compromised. Rightly so, but that doesn't help if the house depends on the income.
Also, there may be offspring who are still young. We did not have that challenge, but it is an issue.
Being a carer of a spouse with dementia often makes one feel as if one has written off the rest of one's life because the focus of that life is being taken away, cell by cell, memory by memory.
For someone older, the remaining life span is less [possibly - we can all be hit by illness or buses].
For a younger person, there may be another 20 years
on top of what an older person may have to live That is a difference that hits hard.
Care facilities for younger people with dementia - as you note - are not good, and the person tends to get lumped in with people who might be their parents, yet have the same affliction. This causes them confusion and distress, and it hits the carer badly as well.
I am really fortunate in that Jan is in a care home where there are some other young onset residents, as well as some who are as old as 90 - yet in better condition than Jan...
Every other challenge and pain of a younger family may be the same for the older one - though I know for sure there are many things that face an older couple where there is dementia - that does not affect the younger family.
Welcome to TP. Sorry you have to be here, but there probably isn't a better place for you to talk to others in a similar situation.
Best wishes
Bruce