The use of Dementia Care Mapping in people with a learning disability and dementia

Dementia Care Mapping is a method for evaluating quality of life in and quality of care of people with dementia and has been used widely in services for older adults. This article presents a report of Dementia Care Mapping for eight adults with learning disabilities and dementia. Trained 'mappers' observed individuals over a set period and recorded their behaviour every 5 minutes. The person was then assigned a wellbeing or illbeing value for each 5 minute period, based on the mapper's empathic judgement as to how the individual was feeling at that time. Any examples of particularly positive or negative events were also recorded and the results fed back to the staff team. Data were used to aid care planning, and outcomes are reported.