Honouring Jan Moss MNZM

It is with deep sorrow that we formally announce the passing of Jan Moss at 11.30 pm on Monday, 4th August 2025, our beloved founder and longtime heart behind the Complex Care Group.

A Memorial in Celebration of Jan’s Life
Date: Saturday, 16 August 2025
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: Takapuna Boating Club, Auckland
Livestream Link:  https://247.stream/rooms/jmoss   

All who knew and respected Jan are warmly invited to attend. We understand many friends and supporters are afar, and we hope to receive news of a livestream of the service from the family, so we will share that link once it’s confirmed.

Expanded Tribute: Honouring Jan Moss MNZM

Jan Moss was more than the founder of the Complex Care Group; she was its heart, its voice, and its most relentless advocate. For over 25 years, her leadership transformed the landscape for families caring for children and adults with very high and complex needs. In 2016, she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in recognition of her extraordinary support and leadership for families of severely disabled people. Jan’s deep empathy and insight came from her own lived experience caring for her daughter, Becky, who lived with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, autism, and intellectual disabilities, experiences that shaped and strengthened every aspect of her advocacy.

The Complex Care Group itself grew directly from the landmark Just Surviving report, released in 2000 by the Health Funding Authority and Child, Youth and Family. This report identified deep systemic gaps in support for families, and Jan was invited to coordinate the newly formed Complex Carers Group in its earliest days, a role she embraced with vision and compassion.

Her advocacy was not confined to New Zealand. As a recipient of the prestigious Winston Churchill Fellowship, Jan travelled to Ireland to study leading models of service delivery and support. She brought those insights home, using them to strengthen New Zealand’s networks of care and to push for more responsive, family-centred services.

Jan’s voice resonated far beyond meetings and policy tables. She spoke candidly in the media about the real challenges families face:

“Here I am, back at square one,” she told the NZ Herald, describing how even with her connections and knowledge, she struggled to secure safe, appropriate care for her daughter Becky.

Through her roles, including chair of Carers NZ and long-time coordinator of the Complex Care Group, Jan built a trusted place for families to find guidance, peer support, and advocacy. Lisa Martin, who succeeded her, called her “a very effective advocate … who worked tirelessly for so many years helping establish Complex Care Group as the ‘go to’ organisation.”

Jan’s legacy is one of courage, compassion, and tangible change. She leaves behind stronger systems, a more connected community, and countless families whose journeys were made less isolating because she chose to walk alongside them.