Aging CEU Courses for SLPs

Master skills to implement in your practice immediately with continued Master Class. The complex symptomatology of Lewy body dementias (Parkinson’s disease dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies) along with evaluation and intervention approaches for PTs, OTs, and SLPs are examined in this Master Class. Case studies emphasize opportunities and approaches for interprofessional collaboration to provide comprehensive, person-centered care.

Patients who are losing weight or demonstrating behaviors that decrease oral intake are at high risk for adverse events, especially in the geriatric population. The impact of impaired cognition on feeding, and strategies to assess and treat patients who are struggling at mealtimes, are described in this course.

Interactions between frailty, sarcopenia, and an aging swallow can result in significant swallowing difficulties in geriatric clients. This course discusses the relationships between swallowing, frailty, and aging, as well as additional contributing factors, and describes interventions to manage and possibly prevent sarcopenic dysphagia.

Mental health issues concerning older adults are discussed in this course. Topics include the intersection between mental and physical health, symptoms of common mental health disorders in this population, and referral criteria.

This course discusses the philosophy behind meeting meaningful needs in therapy, along with tools and counseling techniques that help with understanding a client’s needs. Specific techniques such as ethnographic counseling, motivational interviewing, and tools for verbally impaired clients are described, and examples within therapy interactions are provided.

Many therapists understand the evidence-based treatment approaches for dementia, but are unsure how to write an effective goal to support these. This course describes how to select treatments and write goals according to stage of decline, patient-specific needs, and intended discharge location.

This course provides an overview of using Montessori methods when working with the aging population and patients with dementia. This approach is evidence-based, person-centered, and based on the Montessori educational philosophy that promotes independence, engagement in activities, and care for one’s self, others and the environment. Application of Montessori principles to speech therapy and caregiving interactions is also described.

With current research focusing on resilience factors such as sleep and exercise that may impact the presentation and severity of Alzheimer's, SLPs have an opportunity to activate an elder's best defenses against the effects of dementia. This course focuses on health promotion activities to deploy in individual, group, and community health settings, across any adult/older adult population interested in building cognitive resilience.

This Back to Basics course focuses on the preventative aspect of improving brain health with adult patients, with emphasis on elements that SLPs can target during instruction or counseling aspects of patient treatment and caregiver support. Additional information is provided on advocacy for these services and community outreach to organizations working with older adults.

This course defines the most common mental health diagnoses found in the elderly population, including risk factors and symptoms. Further instruction is provided on preventing caregiver burnout and other action items for the healthcare professional working with patients with mental illness.