Ms Karen Lake

Karen Lake is a registered nurse who has worked in aged care in New Zealand for 30 years and has built a career based on clinical excellence. She is the Operations Clinical and Quality Manager at Ryman Healthcare in Christchurch. Over the last decade, Karen had the responsibility of the clinical and quality oversight for two of New Zealand’s largest retirement village companies, Ryman Healthcare and Oceania Group, and was also instrumental in the development and design of 1CHART an electronic medication management system at Toniq Limited. Since mid-2016, at Ryman Healthcare Karen has been a key member of the team who developed and rolled out Ryman Healthcare’s bespoke digital care system application, myRyman Care. Over the last two years Karen has dedicated herself to creating a new model of dementia care for Ryman Healthcare. The myRyman Life Model of Dementia Care is the result of research; study; interviews with people living with dementia and family members of people living with dementia. Collaboration with dementia care experts in New Zealand and the UK has enabled a wealth of expertise and passion to be incorporated into this innovative model. This strengths based model is based on four core quadrants and 10 ‘elements of happiness’ and is supported by eLearning modules for all staff, residents and family and a new 25, credit, Level 4 Certificate in Person Centred Dementia Care which has been developed by the team in partnership with Otago Polytechnic and is currently under review with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Karen will be talking about this model in the upcoming Hammond Care International Dementia Conference 2020. Karen currently manages the Operations Clinical and Quality team for Ryman Healthcare who support clinical and quality processes within Ryman’s 38 villages throughout New Zealand and Victoria, Australia. She and her team of 24 clinical, quality and education experts innovate, create and implement new initiatives to continually improve the quality of care and quality of life for the 12,000 people residing in Ryman’s retirement villages. Karen has a Bachelor of Nursing from Christchurch Polytechnic, New Zealand and a Diploma in Business Management from Tai Poutini Polytechnic, New Zealand.