Dementia Care NZ

Our team

  • Andrew Sheard

    Director

    Andrew was with our organisation for many years in different roles before being appointed as a Director in 2017. He started out with Dementia Care NZ in 2009 with a position as Operations Manager of Aberleigh Rest Home in Blenheim, which soon extended to managing Tasman Rest Home in Nelson. Moving to the organisational management team, his involvement extended further as his role of Project Manager evolved, working closely with Jim on building projects in Nelson, Blenheim and Kapiti.

    A grass-roots understanding of the aged care industry, coupled with a passion for excellence in care delivery and deep empathy and respect for the elderly underpin Andrew’s role as Director.

    “People matter to me. I enjoy my regular visits to our rest homes, and the personal connections they bring. As a Dad, I understand the importance of family in our lives, and value the strong sense of family in our rest homes.”

    Andrew Sheard
  • Jim Haines

    Director

    Jim is passionate about developing the staff team at Dementia Care NZ. He visits each home regularly to meet with the on-site management teams and to look for ways to further develop their skills. Seeing the personal development of the staff team brings Jim much enjoyment.

    Jim has been running Dementia Care NZ for 20 years and takes special pleasure in providing opportunities for advancement and the fulfilment of personal potential, enabling members of our team to work their way up through the organisation to take up leadership roles.

    ‘Our staff team provides loving care. We talk each day about our vision for residents and staff, discussing ideas and striving to find creative ways of providing the very best care. Providing a special place for people to be cared for gives me enormous pleasure.’

    Jim Haines
  • Chris Booth

    Quality & Systems Manager

    Chris’s role is central to establishing and maintaining consistent and compliant standards across our organisation, particularly in terms of policies, procedures and related documentation and processes.

    Solution-focused and with a flair for finding innovative ways to achieve results, Chris works closely with our operations managers to keep each facility audit compliant. She regularly visits all our facilities to conduct compliancy audits, review their documentation and assess their performance. Her passion for health and safety focuses on accident prevention and incident analysis, with her eagle eye for detail ensuring we meet requirements around reporting timeframes.

    Chris believes that our philosophy and values are something that sets us apart. They are an integral part of our quality system, a factor that keeps Chris motivated to achieve the very best possible outcomes for all our facilities.

    Chris Booth
  • Simon Hamley

    Education Coordinator and Mental Health Nurse

    Simon Hamley trained as a Psychiatric Nurse in the UK in 1985 and worked in a number of mental health roles, including youth mental health, hospital-based nursing and a project aimed and preventing self-harm. His first support of someone living with dementia was as a volunteer in 1982, which led him to pursue a career in nursing. Simon has worked in aged care, both in the UK and in New Zealand, for the past 22 years, and during this time developed a passion and talent for teaching others.

    Simon’s main focus with Dementia Care New Zealand is as Education Co-ordinator for our staff team. He is a Registered Careerforce Assessor and supports staff to attain New Zealand qualifications in aged care. Simon travels to each facility and facilitates training sessions for the staff on a wide variety of subjects, though his favourite sessions are a series of three called the Best Friends Approach to Care. The sessions help to equip staff with an empathetic approach to supporting people living with dementia.

    Simon Hamley
  • Megan Sendall

    Clinical Advisor

    Megan worked in a number of clinical, education, leadership, advisory and compliance roles in both the NZ public and private sectors before joining Dementia Care NZ as Clinical Advisor in 2013. Her transition to a Clinical Director position in 2015 focused on consolidation and development of nursing leadership, clinical governance and professional development. Megan returned to an advisory role in 2019 to provide oversight for Dementia Care NZ clinical leadership, risk, quality and governance activities.

    In support of her current position, Megan continues to practice as an Expert Advisor to the Health and Disability Commissioner and is a Lead Certification Auditor for District Health Boards. Megan’s interests include international health systems, and she has completed system reviews in both Japan and China in recent years. Megan is dedicated to the services Dementia Care NZ provides and the collaborative team of which she is part, providing loving homes for people in residential care.

    Megan lives in Palmerston North with her husband John, and is the proud grandparent of one little girl.

    Megan Sendal
  • Arrah Bagtang

    Regional Clinical Manager

    Arrah comes to us with more than seven years’ experience as Clinical Manager for Aged Care facilities providing rest home, hospital and dementia levels of care, with proven ability to support both residents and staff. Her most recent role has been as Clinical Manager of a 60-bed rest home providing hospital and rest home level care.

    Arrah has expertise in Infection Control, Health and Safety, Quality Improvement, facilitating staff education, interRAI assessments and all aspects of clinical team leadership. Her focus is on creating and maintaining warm, caring and effective relationships with residents, their families and the staff team to provide truly excellent holistic care.

    Above all, Arrah’s passion for older persons’ care, and especially dementia, shine through the work she has chosen to do.

    Mona Sharma
  • Urmee Rahman

    Regional Clinical Manager

    A dedicated professional with over 8 years of clinical and managerial experience in the health sector, Urmee’s expertise is in aged care nursing, with the past four years in clinical management roles.

    Urmee’s approach is strongly people-focused, with a commitment to empowering and supporting our older population to continue to be in charge of living their lives in the way that makes them happy.

    Urmee is at home working within a multi-disciplinary team setting to provide the highest quality of care at all times. She thrives on leading and developing successful teams, and implementing change in a dynamic and complex healthcare environment.

    Her personal interests include reading, travelling, and exploring and getting to know different cultures and places.

    Arah Cartagena
  • Donya Nee

    Marketing and Public Relations

    Donya’s role focuses primarily on coaching facility managers in marketing and public relations and encouraging their involvement in their local community engagement. Donya is also a hands-on diversional therapist with 15 years’ experience working with people who have dementia.

    Donya comes from an arts and wellness background with training in theatre and directing, holistic counselling, post graduate studies in community arts management, and dance and movement therapy. Donya has also recently certified as a Havening practitioner. She has a strong interest in the therapeutic benefits of all arts mediums and incorporates this into her practice as a diversional therapist, employing humour and warmth, creativity and a passion for growing and cooking nourishing organic food.

    Donya has represented Dementia Care NZ at numerous conferences and organisations including Alzheimers NZ conferences and the Change Champions Dementia Conference in Sydney Australia and Probus and Zonta clubs around New Zealand, educating people to understand the intricacies of dementia and gain valuable communication tools and strategies.

    “Making a difference to someone’s day, enticing a laugh or a smile, seeing a person continue to develop skills and gain pleasure and therapeutic benefit from creative activities, are but some of the reasons I love this vocation so much.”

    Donya Nee
  • Vicky Jones

    Operations Management Leader

    With a BA degree in English, Archaeology and Social Anthropology, Vicky’s career has spanned opposite sides of the world and included roles in the film industry and performing arts, diamond grading and gemmology, PR and communications, and caring for people with spinal and traumatic brain injuries, before finding her ‘forever home’ in dementia care.

    Since joining Dementia Care NZ in 2010 Vicky’s role has evolved to include the leadership, mentoring and support of our nine Operations Managers, Human Resources, organisational communications, and staff and family support.

    Challenges energise and inspire Vicky, and life has taught her a passionate belief in the value of mistakes, accountability and forgiveness in learning and growing to become our best selves.

    Vicky Jones
  • Peter Hume

    Strategic Communication, Engagement and Governance Advisor

    Peter’s role at Dementia Care NZ encompasses communications for the organisation and delivering on projects to develop the business. The projects range from implementing plans to improve our care of the diverse populations in our homes to leading sustainability practices and procurement.

    He has experience in communication and project focused roles across mental health, local government and manufacturing sectors, bringing a particular focus on developing staff and community relationships to share ideas and expertise.

    Peter has a particular affinity with the person-centred care at Dementia Care NZ that encourages us to learn more about each other to build better understanding and support.

    Peter Hume
  • Maira Lagumbay

    Clinical Support and Quality Team Leader

    Maira started her nursing career in New Zealand in 2008 at Admatha Dementia Care in Christchurch. She remained there for the next 10 years, gaining an invaluable perspective on the NZ healthcare system and a hands-on understanding of the aged care sector and the dementia journey.

    In 2018 she stepped up into the role of Clinical Manager at Admatha, extending her clinical experience to a higher level while also developing her passion for leadership and staff development and mentoring.

    Maira’s career continued to progress with a move to her current role as DCNZ Clinical Support and Quality Leader in 2021. This newly-created leadership position focused on guiding and supporting our Clinical Management team organisationally in order to carry out their roles more effectively.

    What inspires Maira most is the opportunity to positively influence the provision of the best possible level of care to the older population, specifically individuals and their families who are going through the dementia journey. Maira is also passionate about playing an active part in the journey of each Registered Nurse to find true fulfilment and reach their potential in older persons’ care.

    Maira Lagumbay
  • Nicola MacLean

    Funding Navigator & Debt Management

    Nicola’s role is to monitor and support families through the financial residential care process from admission to discharge, assisting new families with understanding and navigating all aspects of subsidy application, WINZ and super payment/AP processes. As such, she works with our Accounts and Operations teams as she works to identify and resolve issues which could impact on timely payment.

    Nicola has worked in a similar role in aged care previously, and has a clear understanding of the processes and challenges many of our families struggle with.

    Nicola’s supportive presence on our team is an important positive point of difference in terms of the service and support we provide our families throughout their residential care journey.

    Nicola MacLean