'My partner, Gaylene, has suffered from dementia for a number of years. In early 2025, NASC provided me with a number of carers through Healthvision. This proved reasonably useful for providing me with time to shop or attend appointments, and for which I was grateful. However, none of the carers were helpful in engaging Gaylene in any meaningful way. This is not a criticism, since that was not their whole purpose.

 

However, it did encourage her daughter and me to seek the private services of someone who specialised in helping dementia sufferers.  We wanted someone considerate, friendly, inspired, engaging, and cheerful. Someone who would not only work within the confines of Gaylene’s unique mental habits, needs, and requirements, but who also had the interpersonal skills to see beyond her limits, and engage her in a way that would guide her out of her mental confinement and, above all, enable her real moments of happiness.

 

I believed it an impossible quest, until Karen arrived. She has been a beacon of inspiration in so many ways. When Gaylene entered care, Karen kept the appointments, driving across the city to continue her extraordinary caring of Gaylene, whose face always lit up when she arrived.

 

Karen has provided Gaylene with so much positivity, friendship and sweet company that I will be forever grateful. It is no mean feat to generate such consistent warmth of spirit. But I never saw it diminish, and Gaylene was so much happier for it.'

 

Scott Crawford

Titirangi, Auckland
October, 2025