The use of 'dementia care mapping' as a method of evaluating care received by patients with dementia--an initiative to improve quality of life.

'Dementia care mapping' (DCM) is a method of assessing care standards as received by dementia victims. Through the application of this tool, short-comings in care practice can be highlighted in the hope of achieving improvements. The method was employed by the Elderly Mentally III (EMI) unit of a National Health Service trust in South Wales. Baseline evaluations were undertaken on each of the EMI wards containing dementia patients, and reports delivered to the appropriate members of staff. Mean care scores for the unit as a whole were found to lie in the "good' category, as defined by the method. Staff training in the underlying principles of DCM will be followed by re-evaluations of care standards to evaluate the outcome of the attempts made to engender improvements.