Health & Fitness
How to Determine if the Person With Dementia Has Pain
Determining pain levels in people with dementia
In the mid and late stages of dementia it may be impossible for the person with dementia to communicate what is bothering them, or if they are having pain. This has been an issue for family caregivers as well as professionals working in health care facilities. Over the years, researchers developed several scales to help us determine when pain and discomfort are an issue and whether or not medication should be given or other steps taken to provide relief to the person with dementia.
Two of the most popular scales are listed below. Each is easy to use and have been proven to give reliable results.
The first scale that is very useful for people with later stage dementia, is the Abby Scale, found at: http://prc.coh.org/PainNOA/Abbey_Tool.pdf
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The Abby Scale depends on observations to determine how uncomfortable the individual may be. I always found it helpful and would recommend it for families to use at home.
The second scale is useful for people with mid stage dementia. The Wong Baker Faces Pain Scale combines pictures and numbers to allow pain to be rated by the user. It can be used in children over the age of 3, and in adults. The faces range from a smiling face to a sad, crying face. A numerical rating is assigned to each face, of which there are 6 total.
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The idea is to show the person with dementia the different faces and ask which face matches their pain. The Wong Baker Scale can be found at: http://pain.about.com/od/testingdiagnosis/ig/pain-scales/Wong-Baker.htm
I have also found it useful to ask my patients if they have pain, and to put their hand on it. I always found this to be very helpful especially in the later stages of dementia as it allowed us to treat for more specific problems like hairline fractures.
As caregivers we hate to see our loved ones or patients suffer and if there is a way to determine how uncomfortable they are, or to pinpoint the area of pain, we can take steps to treat it.
Stephanie Zeman MSN RN kissesforelizabeth.com
