Speaker Profile
Sira Botes

Sira Botes OTR/L, CHT, CDP

Leadership, Occupational Therapy, Hand Therapy
Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

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Sira Botes is the creator and owner of Botes Memory Method LLC. She is an Occupational Therapist who graduated from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 1993. She moved to the United States in 1996 and currently resides in Gainesville, Fl with her husband and two girls. Sira developed a passion for persons living with dementia as she observed her mom’s ongoing struggle with memory loss as well as her grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s, complicated by Korsakov’s syndrome.

As an Occupational Therapist, and Dementia Specialist, she has a passion for dementia care when she joined home health care as a rehabilitation director in 2012. During this time, she realized that clinicians, families, and persons living with dementia are lacking the knowledge, resources, and skills to overcome barriers to aging in place.

Her role as a home care clinician, treating persons living with cognitive impairment inspired her to create a communication platform, the Memory Bouquet, that could impact everyone involved with dementia care. Sira’s discontent with the current tools available to clinicians for assessment, and treatment purposes, moved her to create her own unique evidence-based assessment tool.

The Botes Analysis of Functional Cognition focuses on the role of executive function during activity engagement. As a result, the Botes Memory Method was born and has impacted seniors and their loved ones and caregivers across the state of Florida. Sira has been invited to speak on podcasts, webinars, and live events as well as present to her peers at a state level. She has trained hundreds of Occupational Therapists and caregivers alike in the use of the Memory Bouquet to elevate the quality of life and decrease the burden of this disease for everyone involved.

Sira is a public speaker, and educator traveling across the state of Florida. She serves as a University of Florida Capstone mentor, and UF guest lecturer as well as a clinical fieldwork educator. She frequently presents workshops and lectures for peers and dementia stakeholders.

EVENTS & ACTIVITIES (Speaking, Spoken, and Authored)