DisDAT Tools

DisDAT is:

• Intended to help identify distress cues in people who because of cognitive impairment or physical illness have severely limited communication.
• Designed to also document a person’s usual content cues, thus enabling distress cues to be identified more clearly.
• NOT a scoring tool. It documents what many staff have done instinctively for many years thus providing a record against which subtle changes can be compared. This information can be transferred with the client or patient to any environment.
• Meant to help you and your client or patient. It gives you more confidence in the observation skills you already have which in turn will help you improve the care of your client or patient.
• Useable by any carer – both lay and professional carers find they can use this tool.
• A means of providing a clearer picture of a client’s ‘language’ of distress.
• Only the first step, take a look at ‘How to use DisDAT’