Based in the North West of England, Dovehaven Care Homes 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. Jo Hadfield-Cubbin, head of clinical governance at Dovehaven Care Homes, describes the group’s use of a digital pain assessment tool and the role it has played in improving resident wellbeing by decreasing pain levels, particularly in those living with dementia
Here at Dovehaven, we have 23 care homes and have the responsibility of supporting 1,000 residents. Many of these residents are living with dementia, meaning pain management can often present challenges. This is because a person's ability to reliably self-report their pain experience can decline as their dementia progresses and can at times manifest as distressed reaction behaviour. At Dovehaven, we wanted to test the hypothesis that distress — rather than being a 'normal' part of the dementia journey — was in fact pain related.
With dementia high on our list of strategic priorities, we decided that a better pain assessment and management solution was needed and so enlisted the support of a digital pain assessment tool to revitalise our pain procedures and processes.
This opportunity was particularly significant for me, as I have always been driven by a personal career goal to support teams in enhancing pain management within social care settings. After qualifying as a Registered Nurse and working in social care for 30 years, I have now been afforded the opportunity to invest in this ambition at Dovehaven. Pain can profoundly affect an individual's quality of life, so it is crucial to have consistent and reliable pain assessment and management procedures in place.
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