UBC Press Developing Excellent Care for People Living with Dementia in Care Homes book Paperback

The award-winning PEARL (Positively Enriching and enhancing Residents' Lives) programme was developed to enable care homes to move from providing good fundamental care to excellent person-centred dementia care. Trialled extensively by one of the UK's largest care providers, it has been proven to dramatically increase the quality of life of people with dementia living in care homes, significantly reducing the use of antipsychotics and the incidence of stress-related behaviours.
This concise and accessible guide, written by the Director of Dementia Care at the care provider which trialled and developed PEARL, describes the key criteria of the programme, and provides best practice guidelines for dementia care practitioners wishing to use the approach in their own care home. With an emphasis on the practical, achievable elements of the programme, and drawing on many useful examples, the author and contributors provide guidelines on, amongst many things, getting the fundamentals of person-centred care right; enabling decision-making; reducing stress-related behaviours; psychosocial treatments; safeguarding; supporting staff; and involving relatives.

Caroline Baker is Director of Dementia Care at Four Seasons Health Care. She was a Consultant Trainer in Dementia Care Mapping and Person-Centred Care at Bradford Dementia Group, Bradford University. Her previous roles were Clinical Nurse Specialist in Dementia Care for Walsall Primary Care Trust, Independent Social Services Liaison Nurse for Walsall Community Health and Home Manager at The ExtraCare Charitable Trust. She has written many articles for the Journal of Dementia Care and Caring Times, and has contributed to a book on Dementia Care Mapping for Hawker Publications. In 2013 she won the Lifetime Achievement in Dementia Care at the 4th National Dementia Care Awards. She lives in Staffordshire, UK.