Zethu Makatini

Bessie Makatini Foundation, Durban,
South Africa

Abstract Title:

Disrupting Dementia Care in Low-Resource Settings: Community-Driven Innovation and Early-Diagnosis Pathways from the Bessie Makatini Foundation, South Africa

Biography:

Zethu works in the NHS as a psychotherapist, supporting older people living with dementia and mental illness. Her commitment to dementia care is personal: her mother was diagnosed with dementia in South Africa in 2009. While living in the UK, she visited her regularly until her death in 2012 and saw the limited dementia services available, particularly in low-income communities there. In 2015, she founded the Bessie Makatini Foundation. The foundation supports people living with dementia in underserved and rural communities. From the UK, she works with colleagues in South Africa to provide dementia awareness, support and training.

Research Interests:

Dementia care systems in low- and middle-income countries are characterised by late diagnosis, limited specialist capacity, and high caregiver burden. Conventional models designed for high-income contexts are often impractical in rural and township communities. The Bessie Makatini Foundation (BMF), supported by the Dementia Trust, has introduced a disruptive, community-centred approach that challenges traditional assumptions about who can deliver dementia care, how early identification can occur, and how families can access specialist services. Operating with minimal resources, BMF has trained ordinary community members as Dementia Champions, enabling awareness, basic screening, psychosocial support, and structured referral pathways to Memory Clinics and social services. This model has produced outcomes typically associated with well-funded programmes in high-income countries. Methods: BMF’s disruptive model integrates three components: 1. Task-shifting through Dementia Champions — equipping non-professionals to deliver dementia awareness, identify suspected cases, and support families. 2. Community-to-clinic referral pathways — linking underserved communities directly to memory clinics at hospitals and clinics, bypassing traditional bottlenecks. 3. Hybrid caregiver support groups accessible in rural, peri-urban, and online formats, providing psychoeducation, emotional support, and coping strategies. This presentation synthesises operational data, caregiver feedback, and emerging findings from collaborative research with UKZN.