Pain Assessment in Long-term care

GOLTC Pain in Care homes Interest Group webinar

Date: Tuesday 4 June 2024

Time: 12pm-1pm BST

Link: Register to join on Zoom

Pain is connected with emotional, cognitive, and behavioural disorders as well as functional issues. Moreover, chronic pain increases suffering, disability and social isolation which impacts negatively upon a person’s emotional, psychological, emotional and social wellbeing and consequently leads to a reduced quality of life and more years spent living with disability. People living in long-term care facilities are often living with dementia or cognitive impairment, frailty and multiple comorbid conditions and can experience complex forms of pain. As a consequence, long-term care facility residents are likely to experience issues with mental capacity and communication which can impact on their ability to articulate their pain and how this impacts upon them this has a significant impact on all aspects of their life and well-being. A person living with dementia may exhibit distressed behaviours as a result of experiencing pain and all too often this is considered indicative of a symptom of dementia as opposed to a manifestation of unmanaged pain. Therefore, focusing on improving the identification, assessment and management of pain in residents living in long-term care is of the utmost importance.

The webinar will cover:

1. Introduction to the Global Observatory of Long-Term care and the Pain in Care homes and welcome (Adelina Comas-Herrera, Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, LSE, UK).

2. Introduction to the GOLTC Interest Group (Dr Zena Aldridge: Social Care Nurse Fellow- NIHR Nursing and Midwifery Office, UK. Dr. Manuela Hoedl: Medical University of Graz. Prof Sandra Zwakhalen: Maastricht University, Netherlands)

3. Presentation: Development of the PAIC “Pain assessment in impaired cognition PAIC” Wilco Achterberg (Leiden University, Netherlands)

4. Presentation: “Translation and validation of the Brazilian PAIC” Patrick Wachholz (Universidade Estadual Paulista, Brazil)

4. Q & A: Current status of the PAIC instrument & further plans? International comparisons? What are the experiences of using the PAIC?

5. Discussion about the Interest Group next steps led by the steering group members

Relevant publications for this webinar:

Corbett, A., Achterberg, W., Husebo, B., Lobbezoo, F., de Vet, H., Kunz, M., Strand l, Constantinou M, Tudose C, Kappesser J, de Waal M & Lautenbacher S. (2014). An international road map to improve pain assessment in people with impaired cognition: the development of the Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC) meta-tool. BMC neurology, 14(1), 229.

van Dalen-Kok, A. H., Achterberg, W. P., Rijkmans, W. E., Tukker-van Vuuren, S. A., Delwel, S., de Vet, H. C., Lobbezoo, F., de Waal, M. W. (2018). Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition (PAIC): content validity of the Dutch version of a new and universal tool to measure pain in dementia. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 13, 25-34. doi:10.2147/cia.S144651

van Dalen-Kok, A. H., Achterberg, W. P., Rijkmans, W. E., de Vet, H. C., & de Waal, M. W. (2019). Pain assessment in impaired cognition: observer agreement in a long-term care setting in patients with dementia. Pain management, 9(5), 461-473. https://doi.org/10.2217/pmt-2019-0025

de Waal, M. W., van Dalen‐Kok, A. H., de Vet, H. C., Gimenez‐Llort, L., Konstantinovic, L., de Tommaso, M., Fischer, T., Lukas, A., Kunz, M., Lautenbacher, S., Lobbezoo, F., MCGuire, B.E., van der Steen, J.T., Achterberg, W.P.  (2019). Observational pain assessment in older persons with dementia in four countries: observer agreement of items and factor structure of the Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition. European Journal of Pain. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1484

Kunz M, de Waal M, Achterberg WP, Gimenez-Llort L , Lobbezoo F, Sampson EL, van Dalen-Kok AH, Defrin R, Invitto S, Konstantinovic L, Oosterman JM, Petrini L,  van der Steen JT, Strand LI, de Tommaso M, Zwakhalen S, Husebo BS, Lautenbacher S (2019). The Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition scale (PAIC-15): a multidisciplinary and international approach to develop and test a meta-tool for pain assessment in dementia. European Journal od Pain, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1477

Kappesser J, Voit S, Lautenbacher S, Hermann C (2020). Pain assessment for cognitively impaired older adults: do items of available observer tools reflect pain‐specific responses?. European Journal of Pain, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejp.1536

Laekeman M (2020) Den Schmerz von Menschen mit Demenz erfassen – Pain Assessment in Impaired Cognition Scale (PAIC 15). Physiopraxis, 18(06): 52-53. DOI: 10.1055/a-1191-8688  www.thieme.de/physiopraxis

Giménez-Llort L, Bernal ML, Docking R, Muntsant-Soria A, Torres-Lista V, Bulbena A and Schofield PA (2020). Pain in Older Adults With Dementia: A Survey in Spain. Frontiers in Neurology https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2020.592366

Langner B (2021). Dem Schmerz auf der Spur. Schmerzassessment bei Demenz mit PAIC15. Pflegezeitschrift 74, no. 1, 54-55