How PainChek Is Transforming Dementia Care at Dovehaven

How Smarter Pain Management Is Improving Life for Residents Across Dovehaven

At Dovehaven, we have always been committed to understanding what really sits behind the behaviours and emotions of those we care for. For many of our residents living with dementia, recognising pain can be especially complex. As verbal communication declines, pain often shows itself in other ways: restlessness, agitation, withdrawal or distressed reactions that can easily be mistaken for symptoms of dementia itself.

We knew that if we wanted to improve wellbeing, we needed to improve the way we identified pain, moving beyond traditional tools and towards a more consistent, proactive approach.

This led us to introduce PainChek®, a digital pain assessment tool that is now used across all 23 Dovehaven homes.

Introducing a New Approach to Understanding Pain

Before digital assessment, pain monitoring was carried out mainly by nurses or senior staff, usually during planned assessments. This meant fewer touchpoints and limited insight into day-to-day changes. We wanted to empower all our care staff, not just clinical leads, to recognise and respond to pain earlier.

PainChek® uses AI through a smart device to pick up facial micro expressions linked to pain and combines them with observed behaviours such as vocal cues, movement, and activity. This gives our teams a clearer, timely understanding of how a resident is feeling, even when their dementia makes reporting pain difficult.

Embedding PainChek® into daily practice was a collaborative effort. Led by our Head of Clinical Governance, Jo Hadfield-Cubbin, and supported by the PainChek® team, staff received hands-on training, access to weekly webinars, competency frameworks, and resources designed to build confidence. We then integrated digital pain assessment into medication rounds, post-fall checks and care plan reviews, making it part of everyday practice.

The Impact: More Comfort, Less Distress, Better Days

The change has been remarkable. Between July and December 2024, our teams completed more than 165,000 pain assessments, giving us a level of insight we’ve never had before.

Pain levels across our homes have reduced dramatically, with severe pain falling by more than two-thirds. As pain decreased, so did distressed reactions, and our homes became noticeably calmer. Resident-to-resident altercations fell significantly, reducing anxiety for those involved and creating a more peaceful environment for everyone.

We also saw a meaningful reduction in benzodiazepine use. With better pain understanding, the need for these medications decreased sharply, and today only a small percentage of residents have PRN benzodiazepines prescribed. This is a major step forward for resident safety and long-term wellbeing.

The benefits extend beyond comfort and mood. Emergency ambulance callouts and hospital admissions following falls have reduced too, showing how early identification of pain can prevent problems from escalating.

For Jo, the impact on day-to-day practice has been transformative:
“Since implementing PainChek®, we’ve seen a real shift in how we manage pain. Distressed behaviours have reduced, our use of benzodiazepines has fallen, and our teams feel more confident knowing they can spot pain earlier and respond quickly.”

And as our CEO, Jenny Davies, reflects:
“PainChek® gets to the root cause rather than masking symptoms. It’s helped our residents lead calmer, more meaningful lives.”

A Better Understanding of the People We Care For

One of the most powerful outcomes has been the reduction in behaviours often associated with dementia, but in reality, linked to pain. Confusion, aggression, crying, resisting care, calling out… all have decreased across our homes since digital pain assessment became part of our daily practice.

This isn’t just a clinical improvement. It’s a quality-of-life improvement, for residents, for families, and for our teams.

Looking Forward

Our partnership with PainChek® has strengthened our commitment to delivering compassionate, person-centred care. It’s helped us better understand the people who live with us and ensured their comfort and dignity remain at the centre of every decision.

We are incredibly proud of the difference this technology is making, and even more proud of the Dovehaven teams who have embraced it so wholeheartedly.

Click these links to hear more from Jenny Davies and Jo Hadfield-Cubbin reflecting on our partnership with PainChek®.