Employer Responses to Dementia in the Workplace in Scotland: A Report to the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland

The reported study investigated how Scottish-based employers from different sectors respond to staff with dementia. Dementia is, and will increasingly be, a workplace issue as populations’ age, working lives extend and there is better recognition of early onset dementias and earlier diagnoses. To date, however, there is a little research on the workplace experiences of people with dementia and the policies, practices and attitudes of their employers.

The requirement to support employees with dementia in the workplace has, amongst other things, a solid legal and human rights foundation. Dementia may be considered a disability under the Equality Act 2010 requiring employers to therefore make ‘reasonable adjustments’. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, in turn, reinforces this.

Using mixed-methods to interrogate workplace policies, practices and attitudes towards employees with dementia the study sought to:
♦ discover the extent to which employers are currently meeting their legal, equality and human rights duties;
♦ identify examples of good practice; and
♦ make recommendations for possible adaptions so that legal and human rights standards can be met.