Clinical Skills with Older Adults

Catalog description

Drawing from clinical approaches used with all populations, this course will teach skills specifically applicable for working with older adults and their families. Interventions are informed by the clinician’s knowledge of and sensitivity to the unique and profound changes experienced by individuals during the natural progression of this phase, who also encounter discrimination and marginalization. Intervention with a unique lens to the aging population will include topics of loss including; roles, financial resources, support networks, partners, friends, cognition, health, overall sense of well-being. Challenges and corresponding interventions which relate to the whole person including; mind, body and spirit, physical changes, interpersonal relationships and sexuality will be addressed. The course will also look at the impact on the family system including; care giving, and transition to alternative living arrangements. Clinical approaches will be presented which support resilience and the positive reframing of the experience for aging populations and their families and which facilitate the incorporation of tools for joyful living in the face of loss and change.