Dementia Care Mapping for Supported Living

Bradford Dementia Group launched the Dementia Care Mapping for Supported Living Tool in 2009 (DCM-SL) after conducting a pilot with Lincolnshire County Council's Home Support service into the acceptability of using DCM in a person's own home.

Since 2009 Bradford Dementia Group have been working with a number of organisations to embed DCM-SL into their support services and now feel DCM-SL is ready to be rolled out further.  The initial work has proved to be a positive experience for care workers, family carers and people with dementia.

DCM-SL is an observational tool based on Dementia Care Mapping that has been specifically designed and tested for acceptability of use in supported living contexts (Surr et al, 2009). This includes home support/care/domiciliary care, extra care housing, supported living, retirement communities and any settings where people with dementia are observed in their own home or private, individual living space.

DCM-SL, like DCM, is both a tool and a process.  The tool is the observations and the coding frames and the way that observations take place.  The process is recommended practice regarding its use for staff development and supervision.  This includes a cycle of briefing and preparation, observing, analysing the data, feeding back and individual and organisational development and action planning.

The focus of DCM-SL as a staff development tool differs somewhat from practice development with DCM. Due to the predominantly lone working nature of care provided in supported living, the focus of DCM-SL is on each individual care worker and their own professional development and support needs. For group or organisational feedback, key issues can be drawn out of the individual mapping sessions.

For further information about DCM-SL please contact DCM-SL Project Lead Susannah Spencer at the Bradford Dementia Group on 07519 629189 or email s.spencer1@bradford.ac.uk

Additional information on DCM-SL

Skills for Care East Midlands Case Study: DCM-SL - New Way of Working

http://www.eastmidlandsiep.gov.uk/uploads/case-studies/A4%20Case%20Study%20Dementia%20Care.pdf

Bluebird Care,  Calderdale: Pilot site

Bluebird Care (pdf,196kb)

Newsletters

Read about the Dementia Care Mapping for Supported Living Tool in the NHC (National Homecare Council) Newsletter below.