Healthcare Areas

In a survey conducted from October 2018 to March 2019, Health Quality Alberta asked clients receiving home and community care:

In the last year, professional home care services met my needs for managing my pain….

Clients could choose “Yes / Partly / No”

Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (International Association for the Study of Pain, 1979).  There are many types of pain, including:

• Acute pain – pain of recent onset and short duration that is usually due to injury or disease;
• Chronic pain – pain that lasts or recurs for longer than 3-6 months, also known as persistent pain;
• Transitional pain – pain that transitions from acute to chronic;
• Cancer-related pain – a common complication of cancer that may be a result of the disease itself or due to treatment; or
• Pain related to a palliative illness, condition, or disease (Alberta Pain Strategy, 2019).

The experience of pain is unique to each person, and involves multiple dimensions, including physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual and is frequently modified by contextual factors. The complexity of pain often makes it difficult for clients and providers, within home and community care and other areas of the healthcare system, to work together to assess and manage pain.

This Health Quality Alberta survey focused on seniors aged 65+, representing the largest group of home care clients. It is known that seniors have an increased burden of both acute and chronic pain (Davies, Higginson, & Organization, 2004; Jones & MacFarlane, 2005). From Health Quality Alberta’s survey results, clients felt less positive about their overall experience when they felt their needs were not met, including pain management.

This data reflects the experiences of seniors aged 65+ receiving long term supportive and maintenance care and are among the largest groups of home and community care clients.

There are a number of factors providers and leaders can consider to better understand and improve client experiences with pain management. To ensure alignment across areas of the healthcare system with respect to pain management, it is important to understand Alberta Pain Strategy. Once familiar with this document, some questions they could ask before taking action include:

• When does pain become a problem for a person and require intervention?
• How well are professional services and treatment meeting client pain needs?
• What are some of the challenges to effectively managing pain in older adults who have acute or chronic pain?
• How can unmet needs around pain management affect client experience?
• Who should a client speak with if they feel their pain is not being managed effectively? Their case manager? The nurse or other professional service staff providing this service? Their family doctor or specialist?
• How is information shared between these parties (e.g., case manager, professional service staff, family doctor, or specialist), to ensure pain is being managed and monitored in a co-ordinated way?

For information about Health Quality Alberta’s Alberta Seniors Home Care Client Survey, please visit Health Quality Alberta’s website.