The AGE WELL Network of Centres of Excellence presented a series of policy rounds focusing on ways of improving the lives of older persons. On May 27 2021, Dr. Thomas Hadjistavropoulos presented on policy changes needed to improve pain care in long-term care homes. The slides from his presentation are compiled into the video below:
He argued that most Canadian jurisdictions have set once every three months as the minimum frequency for pain assessments and that many pre-existing clinical guidelines for pain assessment may be too cumbersome for long-term care homes to implement with a high frequency.
Instead, he outlines a series of feasible recommendations that do not require many extra resources and would result in an increased frequency of pain assessments (see slide entitled "A more sensible solution".
How You Can Help?
Would you like to share your thoughts on our See Pain More Clearly campaign and the use of social media to mobilize knowledge about pain in dementia?
We are looking for policymakers, researchers, healthcare workers and family caregivers to participate in a study to evaluate the effectiveness of the #SeePainMoreClearly social media initiative to mobilize knowledge about pain in dementia.
Dr. Hadjistavropoulos is an international leader in the area of pain assessment in dementia and has shown leadership in the promotion of the health sciences at the local, national and international level. He is the Research Chair in Aging and Health, Director of the Centre on Aging and Health and Professor of Psychology at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He served as the 2007 President of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA).