Dementia Care Mapping™ is an established approach to achieving and embedding person-centred care for people with dementia, recognised by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
For more than two decades DCM™ has been used by care practitioners to improve quality of life for people living with dementia in a range of care settings, including care homes and hospitals.
Dementia Care Mapping™ prepares staff to take the perspective of the person with dementia in assessing the quality of the care they provide. It empowers staff teams to engage in evidence-based critical reflection in order to improve wellbeing and quality of life for people living with dementia at an individual care-planning level.
The Dementia Care Mapping™ cycle provides an ongoing evidence base for developing person-centred practice and achieving practice change, and includes the following phases:
- Preparation and briefing
- Observation
- Analysis
- Report writing and feedback
- Action planning
The analysis of individual maps provides information about how to optimise an individual’s wellbeing over the day. Small things that engender happiness or distress are highlighted in the process of mapping. This can be built upon to ensure that people have the opportunity to experience wellbeing more often during their day. At a group level DCM™ can be used to improve the organisation of care during key events in the day – such as meal times or activity sessions or handovers. DCM™ data can indicate where changes can be made that will improve levels of wellbeing for the whole group of people living within the care setting.
Here at Cobham Care homes in Worthing, our approach to delivering person-centred care is based upon Dementia Care Mapping™. For further information about dementia care at Avon Manor and Avon House, or to download a copy of our latest brochure, please contact us
Source: Centre for Applied Dementia Studies, University of Bradford.