Full Course Description

Solve Challenging Dementia Behaviors: Support Family Connections and Losses as Root Causes

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Differentiate Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia using a strengths-based, functional abilities model.
  2. Demonstrate mindfulness interventions and techniques to use for people living with dementia.
  3. Analyze attachment theory as it relates to people living with dementia, including attachment loss, separation distress, and challenging behaviors.
  4. Evaluate the 5 Love Language framework as a “toolkit” to build the emotional love connection with those affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementias.
  5. Choose non-medication-based strategies to manage challenging behavioral expressions in people living with dementia.
  6. Determine new frustration-ending alternatives to manage agitation, aggression, and other challenging behaviors.

Outline

When the Medical Model Doesn’t Work

  • The medical model reimagined focusing on abilities, strengths, and resilience rather than disabilities, weaknesses, and neuropsychiatric symptoms
  • 5 cognitive functions (attention/concentration, memory, executive function, language, visuospatial function)
  • Personality
  • Mood
  • Orientation
  • Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
  • Transform how you think about and problem-solve common challenges in Alzheimer’s disease and the other dementia types
Mindfulness & Dementia
  • Mindfulness reimagined in the setting of dementia
  • How mindfulness affects the autonomic nervous system
  • Associative vs. dissociative experiences through the lens of mindfulness
  • Embodied, sensory-based mindfulness strategies to use with people living with dementia
Attachment Theory & Dementia
  • Attachment theory reimagined in the setting of older adults
  • Dementia as the ultimate attachment loss
  • Separation distress responses in the person with dementia
    • The seeking response: Agitation, aggression, “going home,” wandering, resisting care
    • The withdrawing response: Depression, apathy, anhedonia
  • Affirm, acknowledge, redirect: A simple, powerful attachment-based approach for challenging behavioral expressions of dementia
Strengthening Relationships: The 5 Love Languages and Dementia
  • Love reimagined in the context of dementia
  • 5 Love Languages in practice – physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and gifts
  • Dementia as an erosion of the “emotional glue” that bonds people together
  • Skills to foster emotional love connections and attachment bonds

Target Audience

  • This seminar benefits multidisciplinary professionals who care for persons living with dementia and their family care partners. This includes:
    • Nurses
    • Nurse Practitioners
    • Social Workers
    • Licensed Professional Counselors
    • Psychologists
    • Psychiatrists
    • Physical Therapists
    • Occupational Therapists
    • Speech-Language Therapists
    • Recreational Therapists
    • Nursing Home/Senior Living Administrators
    • Activity Directors
    • Physician Assistants
    • Certified Nursing Assistants
    • Anyone desiring next-level skills to proactively assess and intervene as challenging behaviors present

Copyright : 05/14/2020

Challenging Geriatric Behaviors

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Develop strategies to manage difficult behaviors in seniors who have an altered perception of reality.
  2. Manage the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias.
  3. Appraise current research on the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as lifestyle factors to slow the disease progression.
  4. Determine the safety issues associated with geriatric patients who drive, to be able to identify individuals who pose a safety threat.
  5. Develop strategies to minimize or redirect wandering behavior in individuals with cognitive impairment.
  6. Analyze environmental and behavioral causes of agitation. 
  7. Differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate sexual behaviors in individuals with dementia.
  8. Distinguish between normal sleeping patterns and bedtime issues which could lead to increased health problems.
  9. Analyze the physical and psychological changes that affect an elder’s desire and ability to eat including the changes in nutritional requirements.
  10. Identify the signs of caregiver stress and develop intervention strategies to prevent burnout.

Outline

Normal Aging, Dementia, Depression or Delirium

  • Normal aging changes of the mind
  • Depression, dementia, and delirium
  • Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias
  • Diagnose, differentiate, and develop a plan of care
Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Stages
  • Assessment
  • Getting a diagnosis
  • Behavioral issues of early diagnosis
  • Management and interventions
  • Pharmacological treatments /li>
Driving with Dementia
  • Driving safety
  • Legal issues
  • Assess driving abilities
  • How to take the keys away
Wandering
  • Reasons why cognitively impaired individuals wander
  • Is wandering a bad thing?
  • Issues to consider
  • Manage a wanderer’s behavior
Physical Aggression
  • Identify the cause of aggression
  • Loss of impulse control
  • Regression of the mind/child-like mind
  • Manage the problem
Inappropriate Sexual Behaviors
  • Normal sexual drive or inappropriate behavior
  • Cognitively impaired individuals
  • Medication management
  • Ethical considerations
Refusing to Eat/Forgetting to Eat
  • Reasons why geriatric patients slow or stop eating
  • Nutritional needs in a geriatric patient
  • Improve nutritional status
  • Malnutrition and dehydration
  • Alternatives to eating
Sleepless Nights
  • Sundowning and behavioral problems in the evening
  • Why does sundowning occur?
  • Environmental interventions to decrease aggressive behaviors
  • Medication management when it becomes problematic
Caregiver Stress
  • Physical, psychological, and emotional stress
  • Identify caregiver burnout and ways to help
  • Assist the caregiver
Other Issues
  • Ways to identify potential falls and prevent injury
  • Causes for orthostatic hypotension
  • Ways to avoid using restraints
Case Studies: Learning from Experience and Mistakes
  • How to manage sundowners
  • Strategies to improve hygiene
  • Reassurance and redirection

Target Audience

  • Nurses
  • Physical Therapists
  • Physical Therapist Assistants
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Occupational Therapy Assistants
  • Speech-Language Pathologists
  • Social Workers
  • Home Healthcare Providers
  • Nursing Home Administrators
  • Registered Dietitians & Dietetic Technicians
  • Recreation Therapists

Copyright : 04/24/2020

Geriatric Pharmacology: Maximizing Safety & Effectiveness

Program Information

Objectives

  1. Determine preventative techniques and individual monitoring plans to minimize adverse drug events and drug-drug interactions.
  2. Apply the principles of polypharmacy to the patient with cognitive impairment.
  3. Analyze the effects of aging on pharmacokinetics.
  4. Evaluate major causes, mechanism and early symptoms of drug-induced toxicity.
  5. Assess tools used to safely taper and discontinue medications.
  6. Apply prescribing strategies for the geriatric patient.
  7. Integrate age-sensitive principles for medication dosing and management to clinical scenarios.

Outline

Aging and Pharmacodynamics

  • Effects of Aging on Drug Therapy
  • Variations in Drug Half-life and Clearance
  • Drug Dosing in Chronic Kidney Disease
  • Common Inappropriate & Over-prescribed Drugs
  • Identifying Subtle Clues to Prevent an Adverse Drug Reaction

Drug-Drug Interactions

  • The P450 System
  • The Magic Drug Number in the Elderly
  • The Top 10 Medications to Avoid
  • The Top 10 Drug-drug Interactions
  • Drugs Associated with Weight Loss

Strategies to Avoid Adverse Drug Events

  • Identifying Subtle Clues to Prevent an Adverse Drug Reaction
  • Individualizing a Monitoring Plan
  • Mandatory Gradual Dose Reduction (GDR)
  • The Garfinkel Method for Drug Discontinuation

The "BEERS Criteria"

  • What are the Experts Saying?
  • Follow the Criteria OR go with your Instincts?
  • When Inappropriate Drugs are OK

STOPP and START

  • New Recommendations
  • Guidelines by Body System
  • Putting it all Together - Still a Puzzle?

Controversial Vitamins & Herbal Supplements

  • Is your Multivitamin killing you?
  • After 19 years, the Research is in
  • Advising your Patients Appropriately
  • The Vitamins that Help & the Ones that Hurt

Psychopharmacology

  • Selecting the Right Medication
  • Challenges in LTC
  • Black Box WARNINGS

Dementia, Depression & Delirium

  • The 3 "Ds" in Geriatrics
  • Drugs that Cause Cognitive Impairment

Prescribing Challenges & Solutions

  • Cardiovascular
    • Digoxin, Amiodarone & the Risk of Orthostatsis
    • The New Anti-Hypertensive Guidelines
  • Neurological
    • The Risk of "Sleepers": Zolpidem, Eszopiclone, Zaleplon
  • Endocrinology
    • "Doc I've got a Low 'T'"
    • Eliminating Sliding Scales
  • Gastrointestinal
    • Risks of Proton-pump-inhibitors (PPIs)
    • Best Antiemetic Choices
  • Anticholinergics
    • Associated Psychosis
    • Increased Anxiety and Agitation
  • Antithrombotics
    • Is Aspirin Still Recommended?
  • Anti-Infectives
    • Antibiotic Stewardship
    • Drug Resistance Concerns
    • Major Contributors to Cdiff
  • Pain Meds
    • Newest Guidelines for Opioid Discontinuance
    • Alternatives to Opioids

Target Audience

  • Nurses
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Clinical Nurse Specialists
  • Physician Assistants

Copyright : 03/12/2019