The purpose of the thesis was to make a guide on the assessment of pain in the elderly and the most common treatment methods for the enhanced housing service unit in Kielo. The enhanced housing service unit is located in Varpaisjärvi, Lapinlahti. Kielo is an enhanced housing service unit for the elderly and pro-vides round-the-clock care and attention. Kielo mainly treats elderly people who need round-the-clock care and attention. The client organisation of the thesis hoped that the guide would include information on dif-ferent pain assessment methods and different forms of drug-free treatments that nursing staff can establish for practical work in working life. The aim of the guide is to awaken practical, auxiliary and registered nurs-es in Kielo to assess the pain of the elderly, the effectiveness of pain management, and to learn and adopt the use of pain assessment as one of the most important methods of nursing. The aim of the guide is to introduce standardized practices for the comprehensive assessment of pain management into working life, as well as to present information on pain management in the elderly, pain assessment methods and medicated and nonmedicated treatments.

The thesis was implemented as a development work. In the development work, evidence-based and re-search-based information was studied extensively to gather the latest information on the pain assessment of the elderly and the most common treatment methods. The reliability of the sources, even that of the older ones, was critically assessed, and the thesis authors came to the conclusion that the information had not changed over the years.

Pain is a broad concept, and in this thesis the authors familiarized themselves with the assessment and treatment of pain in the elderly as the authors felt they do not have enough knowledge of it or there are no clear concepts of action models. The treatment of pain in the elderly may not be evaluated, in which case the patient may not be treated for the pain. An elderly person experiences pain differently or may not feel it at all. Thus, the pain may be reflected in other diseases and an unnecessary loss of function, leaving the pain itself untreated. An elderly patient with a behavioral disorder may be misunderstood and, instead of being treated for the pain, will be treated with the wrong medication or not treated at all. With the help of the thesis, Kielo's nurses gain important and evidence-based information about the assessment and treatment of pain and their significance. Based on the knowledge, nurses learn to use selected methods to assess and treat pain correctly. At best, common practices across the organization for pain assessment and management will be significantly improved. Staff employees will use consistent methods, which will improve the overall pain management. Further research can be done to assess the use of the guide in working life and how the guide establishes pain assessment and treatment methods. Updating the guide annually is also recommendable so that new information is updated with working life information. As a follow-up study, pain recording may also be added to determine the effectiveness of pain management