Dementia Care Mapping introduced on World Alzheimer's Day

Today, on World Alzheimer's Day we have introduced a highly specialised tool called Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) which can provide dementia patients in residential settings with an improved level of care throughout their experience of dementia, and increase the effectiveness at which staff are able to interact with them.

Our Dementia Care Mapping tool is a method designed to evaluate and understand the quality of care provided from the perspective of the person with dementia.  

It involves using;

·     expert observation of a number of people with dementia, their experience of care and their interactions with staff; in terms of behaviour and well-being.

·     providing a clear report, and balanced objective feedback.

·     this can lead to further staff training on their interactions and provision of care.

Dr Neil Matson is a consultant Clinical Psychologist at our practice who has specialist DCM training. He is experienced in delivering this work, and in supporting staff teams and people with dementia. 

This service can help residential care home staff to improve the level of dementia care they provide by:

·      helping understand the patient and maintain their individual ‘personhood’

·      reducing the chance of displacement

·      reducing the chance of behavioural distress

·      working with staff teams to increase empathy and job satisfaction

·      decreasing stress