Dementia Care NZ
Our team
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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.”
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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.’
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Amy Dodge
Accounts Payable/Payroll
Amy assists with the ordering and pays the bills for our homes around the country. She also arranges our organisational and clinical meetings, and takes care of payroll for our staff.
Amy is studying part-time at University so she is often busy studying outside of work.
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Herbert Dean
Purchasing Advisor
Herbert looks after procurement for the organisation and makes sure we get some good deals. He has a lot of experience in the hotel industry and can turn his hand to almost anything.
You’ll often see Herbert around our homes fixing or replacing the equipment that keeps our homes running smoothly.
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Steph Ross
Accounts Receivable/Payroll
Steph has experience in a range of office roles in a variety of industries. She sends out the invoices for any additional services our residents receive and takes care of payroll for our staff.
Steph is also a go to person to solve any curly problems with subsidised care in our homes.
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Catherine Hume
Administrator
Catherine has a background in the financial industry and looks after a wide variety of tasks for our team, from booking travel, helping out with payroll and keeping our finances ship shape.
She also helps to organise events and raise funds for Pillars who we donate to each year. Pillars arrange mentoring and support for children who have a parent in prison. -
Sarah Sheard
Vision Development and Marketing Manager
Sarah looks after the marketing for our homes and promotes our Vision and Values. She has a variety of prior experience including a background in secondary teaching.
You will often read Sarah’s work through our newsletters and she puts together the booklets our residents and their whanau receive when they enter our homes. -
Adam Crow
Construction Project Manager
Adam has over 20 years of experience on the construction sector as a Carpenter, Site Manager and Project Manager. He has worked on both residential and commercial projects, and enjoys utilising his excellent knowledge of the building industry and communication skills to solve issues throughout the building process.
Adam is looking forward to building and improving our aged care homes for our residents to enjoy.