The Western New York Alliance for Person Centered Care (PCC) teamed up with UB School of Nursing researchers last week to become certified Dementia Care Mappers. The training, certified by the University of Bradford in the U.K., was delivered by Marilyn Hartle and LaDonna Jenson who together form the consulting firm “Jentleharts”. They are the only certified trainers for DCM in the USA.

Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) is a highly structured observational tool which documents the mood and engagement of elders with dementia over the course of a day quantifying the quality of interactions with staff, visitors and other residents in long term care settings. DCM provides a proxy measure for quality of life and wellbeing something notoriously difficult to achieve in this vulnerable population where capacity for recall and verbal communication is diminished.

The new mappers included staff from four of the six Alliance facilities who learned the DCM techniques and skills alongside UB faculty and students. The team will conduct mapping as part of Dr Davina Porock’s research program which aims to improve the care of elders with dementia in long term care in addition to being used for staff development and training in long term care facilities.

Graduation picture - Left to right. Back row: Diane Braun (Beechwood Continuing Care), Bob Gaughan (Bristol Homes Assisted Living), Junxin Li (UB SON PhD student), Bonnie Patrick (Briody Healthcare), Dr Yu-Ping Chang (Assistant Professor UB SON), Brenda Genewick (Our Lady of Victory Senior Neighborhood), Dr Carolyn Montgomery (Assistant Clinical Professor UB SON).

Front row – left to right: Dr Davina Porock (Professor UB SON), LaDonna Jenson and Marilyn Hartle (Jentleharts and DCM trainers), Rhonda Rotterman (Executive Director WNY Alliance for PCC).