Announcing the new DAI Website
We are very excited to announce the launch of the new Dementia Alliance International (DAI), website today, which is officially World Alzheimer’s Day.
September is World Alzheimer's Month, which many of the DAI members also refer to as Dementia Awareness Month, because they feel it is more inclusive of everyone, with any type of dementia and not only Alzheimer's Disease. It is also partly why Dementia Australia and Dementia Singapore changed their names.
In past years, DAI has been very active during September, with daily blogs, webinar series and many other activities, as well as busy on our social media platforms.
This year, our Chair Alister Robertson and many others at DAI have continued to be very busy, working behind the scenes.
This new website is a result of our some of that hard work, which leads us to our second important announcement on World Alzheimer’s Day!
Note: Please accept our apologies if some content it not completely up to date, or missing. We are working on ensuring the process and site are accurate.
Dr Jennifer Bute wins the 2022 DAI Richard Taylor Advocates Award.
Nominated by one of DAI’s co-founders, Kate Swaffer, we all agreed Jennifer is a very deserving recipient of this prestigious award. For well over a decade now, Dr Jennifer Bute, based in the United Kingdom, has worked tirelessly to advocate for other people diagnosed with dementia having herself been diagnosed in 2009. Like so many of our members, when first diagnosed with dementia, Jennifer thought it was the end, then discovered it’s not! That is exactly what DAI does for its new members too, it brings back hope, and a renewed sense of purpose. In her career, Jennifer was a medical doctor, who needed to retire early due to her own diagnosis of dementia and has always said she was greatly inspired by Richard Taylor and called him a friend.
Although not a co-founder of Dementia Alliance International, she was involved in the early meetings and discussions about it, providing advice, expertise and most of all, her great desire to help others. Jennifer has been a consistent supporter of DAI since it was launched on 1 January 2014, has regularly donated to DAI, and has attended the DAI cafes, our online spiritual services, including participating in them, and joined occasional peer to peer support groups and webinars, when time zones have permitted. Jennifer has also represented DAI at the Alzheimer’s Universities run by ADI several times. Her desire to improve the lives of all people with dementia and their families and care partners is admirable, and includes hosting her own website Glorious Opportunity, and published her book on living with dementia, Dementia from the Inside: A Doctor's Personal Journey of Hope, in 2018, which tells readers what it's like to live with dementia, and also reflects on the question of Where is God in all this?
Featured in the ADI World Alzheimer’s Report 2018, Jennifer wrote of her own diagnosis, “I was shocked when visiting my patients, others started hugging and kissing me – a couple of weeks later I realised that I had in fact known these people for 20 years. I also got horribly lost. That was kind of how it all started. I was in my late 50s when I began to notice things weren’t normal. At the time I was working as an executive partner in a General Practice in Southampton. I started getting lost, I couldn’t remember how to get to the branch surgery, how to get home, and it was frightening. It was during a case conference that I realised I could no longer continue working. I looked around and said, “Right, shall we start with introductions?”, I turned to the person next to me who replied, “But Jennifer, I’ve worked with you for years.” By the time they got to the end of the room I realised that something was seriously wrong. I had to resign after that case conference. My patients meant too much to me. I couldn’t even imagine having to go into court if something happened – like forgetting to put one decimal place on a prescription. So this was a definitive moment for me. Many people can still work when they have dementia but not in my job. So that’s when I finally diagnosed myself with dementia.” Note: Jennifer did receive a formal diagnosis from another medical doctor.
This year, many of us had the opportunity to meet in person again at the ADI conference in London, which Jennifer attended, having had a poster accepted. See below.
Congratulations Jennifer.
Alister Robertson, Chair, Dementia Alliance International
On behalf of the Board and Membership
Dementia Alliance International
Support People with dementia: Donate to DAI
Download your copy of Jennifer's ADI conference poster here:
