DOVEHAVEN Care Homes – which runs Callands Care Home at Warrington – has recorded major reductions in pain among residents after using an AI assessment tool.
Severe pain was reduced by 67 per cent, moderate pain by 42 per cent and mild pain by 25 per cent.
Dovehaven introduced the digital pain assessment tool PainChek in all its North West-based care facilities.
The company offers a wide range of care services for older adults, specialising in residential and nursing care with an emphasis on high quality dementia and complex care. It looks after 1,183 individuals across its 23 care homes.
From July to December last year, Dovehaven completed over 165,000 pain assessments using PainChek.
As a person’s dementia progresses, it can become more difficult for them to be able to self-report their pain experience. Historically, assessing pain for people who cannot verbalise has been challenging and subjective.
PainChek uses AI and the camera of a smart device to assess a resident’s face, while the carer observes the resident to assess their voice, movement, behaviour, activity, and body. This empowers carers to detect pain in residents even when it is not obvious, quantify its severity, and monitor the impact of treatment to optimise care planning.
As a result of optimising pain management, and reducing the pain burden across its services, Dovehaven has seen a 41 per centreduction in instances of distress and a 58 per cent reduction in resident-to-resident altercations.
Following the reduction of distress incidents, the necessity to use benzodiazepines has also reduced by 40 per cent.
Where possible, benzodiazepines should be avoided for older individuals as they are associated with well-documented negative side effects, such as an increase in falls and fall-related fractures. They can also be associated with increased cognitive decline for people living with dementia. Research also suggests that there are several factors to indicate that benzodiazepines can increase the risk of pneumonia and supress the immune function. Combined, these negative side effects paint a concerning picture for older people living in care, as more than 28 per cent of residents in care homes have one or more prescriptions for benzodiazepines.
Jo Hadfield, head of quality at Dovehaven, said: “I have been fortunate working for Dovehaven to achieve a career ambition to review and support teams to improve pain management in a social care environment. Since implementation of PainChek® across all Dovehaven Care Homes we have seen a transformation in relation to pain management which has significantly reduced distressed reaction behaviours and PRN benzodiazepine use.”
Tandeep Gill, senior business development manager at PainChek UK added: “Dovehaven’s ability to reduce pain across its estate of care homes has brought immense benefits for its residents, staff and the quality of care the provider is able to achieve. The reduction of resident-to-resident altercations is significant. These incidents can not only be distressing for those directly involved, but also to other residents in the nearby vicinity who may not know what has happened and why. The changes seen are profound and ensure the overall improvement of people’s experiences in care.”
For more information, visit: https://painchek.com
1 Comment
This is very timely because my latest Public Advisor on a new research ARC project with Liverpool university.
The aim is to find better pain management techniques.