Pain in people with intellectual disability and limited communication is often not recognised and, in turn, left untreated. Several projects have been conducted to address this issue.
- Delivering Customised Employment in Australia
- Exploring the use of supports to facilitate individualised living
- Falls risk and prevention in people with intellectual disability
- Experiences of moving from government to community services
- Supporting people with intellectual disability in decision making
- Decision-making support training for disability support workers
- Identifying pain in people with intellectual disability
- Facilitating inclusion for people with disability
- Measuring outcomes of disability services in children
- The 1 in 4 Poll: Issues of importance to people with a disability
- Access to services for people with complex communication and mental health needs
- Supporting younger people in residential aged care
- Measuring outcomes for people using disability services
- Supporting clients with complex health care needs
- Involving people with disability in the behaviour support planning process
- The development and delivery of a co-research course for people with disability
Pain in people with intellectual disability and limited communication is often not recognised and, in turn, left untreated. Several projects have been conducted to address this issue.
The aim of the Keeping Pain in Check research was to determine if a checklist, the Non - Communicating Adult Pain Checklist (NCAPC), helped disability support workers to identify pain in people with intellectual disability and limited communication. Another aim was to develop and trial an online training course for disability staff and evaluate whether it improved knowledge about pain in this group of people.
A summary of the research is available [here].
The project was funded by the Winifred and John Webster Charitable Trust (as managed by the Perpetual Trustees).
Another research project explored the experiences of pain in adults with severe or profound intellectual disability, and evaluated the impact of a face-to-face education session on support workers beliefs, knowledge and confidence in identifying and responding to pain in this group of people. The project also trialled two behavioural checklists (The Abbey Pain Scale and the DisDAT) to determine whether they could be used to identify pain.
A summary of the research is available [here].
See also
Weir, S., & Koritsas, S. (2022). Pain and distress in people with severe or profound ID in Victoria, Australia: Utility of behavioural assessment tools. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 19(3), 311- 320. https://doi.org/10.1111/jppi.12404
This research was funded by the Estate of Kenneth Albert Short.
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