'Dementia care mapping'(DCM) is a method of assessing care standards as received by dementia victims. Through the application for this tool, shortcomings in care practice can be highlighted in the hope of achieving improvements. The method was employed by the Elderly Mentally Ill (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.