Dementia Care Mapping is an effective measuring instrument and method
to evaluate and improve the care given to persons living with dementia.
Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) strives to deliver clear and reliable information about the care setting from the viewpoint of the individual experiencing dementia and the care being provided. Mapping dementia care involves making detailed observations,
recording them and evaluating the data. This information provides key indicators for person centered care planning

Dementia Care Mapping indicates:

1) Individual client's well-being and ill-being scores
2) How care was delivered and received by each person
3) Style of care given (empathetic, punitive)
4) Over-All comprehensive view of the general quality of care.

Person Centered Care without Dementia Care Mapping is too vague and lacks empirical foundation. Dementia Care Mapping without Person Centered Care is merely a set of techniques and has no coherence. Dementia Care Mapping is an effective evidence based evaluation tool that indicates areas of need and improvement in care.

Outcomes of Dementia Care Mapping

• Measures and assists quality assurance plans and programs.
• Assesses care from the point of view of the person with dementia.
• Essential tool when looking at quality of life and care.
• Supplements standard structural care approaches of evaluation
• Provides detailed care observations and recordings in dementia care settings.
• Creates a dementia care "map" summary of resident's quality of life and well being.
• Indicates specific experiences of well or ill being as a result of care provided.
• Identifies how care is distributed among residents.
• Depicts significant characteristics of approach and quality of care.
• Provides an overall index of the general quality of care.
• Used to compare qualities between different models of person centered care.
• Tracks a particular scheme of care at different points in time.
• Initiates real time immediate feedback about existing practices of care.
• Redefines expectations of good quality care and best practice.
• Focuses care providers to look at individualizing care for all residents.

 
Strategic Pathways, 2009