Thank you for visiting the JustGiving page for Elizabeth 'Betty' Hunter, a pioneering Coventry Social Worker who for over 40 years improved the care provision for thousands of vulnerable people across the city, and who helped redefine how care for dementia patients should be delivered.            

Betty was born in Dun Laoghaire, County Dublin in 1932, and grew up in a loving family with four sisters and four brothers.

Married in 1956, she arrived in Coventry from her beloved Ireland in 1964, with her husband Tommy and a young family, settling in the Earlsdon area of the City.

In the early 1970’s Betty was an active member of the All Souls Roman Catholic Church parish in Chapelfields, Coventry. She went on to become a member of the All Souls Development
Association, a church-based charitable support group.

After raising her family of six sons, and by now in her forties, Betty started work as a part-time carer for Coventry City Council, initially based at Aldermoor Lodge in Stoke Aldermoor

Whilst working there she had a chance meeting with the then Director of Coventry Social Services Mr Tom White, who was visiting to undertake an inspection. Whilst there he observed Betty providing care to an elderly patient and was impressed by the dignified way in which Betty administered the care. The following day he arranged for Betty to undertake formal training, which subsequently lead to Betty becoming a fully qualified Social Worker some years later.

Once qualified, Betty progressed through numerous roles within the council, eventually managing several care homes in Coventry in a career spanning almost 20 years. During this period Betty became a Founder Member of Coventry Branch of the Alzheimer’s Society, an illness that was not well understood in those early days.

Over the years Betty had the pleasure of working with Professor Graham Stokes, who subsequently went on to become a nationally recognized expert in Dementia Care provision. During this period George Rowley House, which was managed by Betty, became the first
residential care home in the city to pilot a pioneering dementia unit, as a collaboration between the NHS and Social Care.

Betty and Graham were responsible for the training in this very successful pilot scheme, which helped to develop the understanding and best practice for the treatment of dementia patients across the city.

Betty retired from the City Council in 1992. However, she was subsequently asked to return on a couple of occasions to provide support and training to several care homes in the Earlsdon and Tile
Hill areas of the city.

A relaxing retirement was not an option favoured by Betty. In 1995, in her early sixties, she launched her own business, CARE ASSOCIATES. The company specialised in providing highly trained staff to support elderly clients who require care at home, with particular emphasis on caring for those with dementia.

Celebrating 25 years in business in 2020, Care Associates remains a family business and has gone from strength to strength. It continues to provide care for the vulnerable of the city and to employ many of the original team, several of whom have been with the company since the beginning.

Over the years Professor Stokes remained a close friend of Bettys, returning to Coventry on several occasions to visit Care Associates. Uniquely, he provided invaluable further training in dementia care to staff at Care Associates thus benefiting countless families across the city who relied on them for the care of their loved ones. Betty personally carried out much of the training of her employees, and always impressed on them the need to ‘look beyond the disease to the person inside’.

Betty was a very proud Irish lady and a member of the Coventry Irish Society. She featured in the ‘Coventry Heart Irish Home’ exhibition arranged by the Society’s Simon McCarthy at the Herbert Art Gallery in 2018. This event can be viewed on You Tube and provides a fascinating insight into the journey that Betty and so many of her generation took as they left Ireland to set up a new life in Coventry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glZAIP2aQmA

During her own personal battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Betty was cared for at home by her family, with huge support by many of the same staff whom she had trained over the years at Care Associates. Without them, Bettys wish to remain in her own home would simply not have been possible.

Betty passed away peacefully at home with her family at her bedside.

As the Irish say at the passing of a loved one, ‘Safe Home’.