Resident uses medical background to help dementia patients

A RETIRED GP from Southampton, living in Richmond Villages Cheltenham, is helping staff and residents to understand the realities of living with dementia.

Dr Jennifer Bute, age 76 built a well-respected career in the medical profession: she ran a hospital in rural Zululand, South Africa where she was often the only doctor on-site; she has taught doctors and nurses in various countries; and she worked as a GP for 25 years.

She was forced to take early retirement when she was diagnosed with Young-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease in 2009. However, her diagnosis certainly did not put an end to her goal of helping others.

Jennifer’s driving passion is her desire to help people. When speaking of her career, she summed up her attitude towards her work, saying, “I loved my work and I loved my patients.”

What drove her to the medical profession is now fuelling her in her retirement.

She has spent the last decade working tirelessly to dismantle stereotypes about dementia and to help improve dementia care in retirement homes and medical settings.

Not only does she speak at conferences, post online about her experiences, and run regular memory groups for fellow dementia patients, but in 2018 she also co-wrote a book with Louise Morse about her experiences, Dementia from the Inside: A Doctor’s Personal Journey of Hope.

She said: “I want to help other people: it’s all that’s important to me. I’m not interested in myself and promoting myself, but I am interested and concerned and wanting to help everybody else.”

Jennifer has lived in Richmond Villages Cheltenham in an assisted living apartment since last January. While she has help with daily tasks such as with cleaning and cooking, she spends her own time helping other residents with their dementia diagnoses.

Not only is Jennifer able to connect with other dementia patients and help them to understand the disease, but she also works with Richmond Villages staff.

She added: “The staff have just been so wonderful in not only accepting my help, but encouraging me.

“That has meant so much to me: the fact that they want my help because they know that it also helps me to have a purpose and to know that I have some value here too. I’m very privileged to be here. I’m so grateful to all the staff.”

To the residents and staff of Richmond Villages Cheltenham, Jennifer has become an inspirational figure. Her attitude towards dementia is unwaveringly positive.

Describing her condition she said: “Everyone is different and I passionately believe that the person with dementia remains until the end: they just need to be found and they can be found and it’s so rewarding when they are: it just brings me such joy.”

Jennifer has been running memory groups to help fellow dementia patients to find value and slow down the progression of dementia.

She said: “Helping others is everything. In many ways, my condition is a blessing, because it allows me to help other people. I feel extremely grateful and privileged to be able to do so.”