(This course will include the DIR 101 introductory course plus additional focus on DIR for OTs and writing
goals from a developmental perspective.)

Presented by Jeffrey Guenzel, MA, LPC, DIR-Expert and Gretchen Kamke, MS, OTR/L, DIR-Expert

Course Objectives:

1. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to identify at least three common features of autism and other challenges of relating and communicating.
2. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to identify at least four key features of relationship-based approaches.
3. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to describe all 6 Functional Emotional Developmental Capacities (FEDCs) in the DIR® model and potential challenges that children face at each capacity.
4. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to describe at least three characteristics of how individual differences (the "I" in DIR®), including health, sensory processing, and regulatory challenges, can impact a child's development.
5. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to identify at least three key principles and basic strategies of Floortime.
6. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to describe at least three characteristics of relationship and family in the DIR® model.
7. Students successfully completing this course will demonstrate the ability to describe the essential role of affect as it is related to the D, the I, and the R

Management strategies and more for: Alzheimer's Disease & Dementias, Pain Management, Geriatric Pharmacology, Geriatric Emergencies, Managing Challenging Behaviors, Caregiver Stress & Burnout, And Much More!

Presented by Steven Atkinson, PA-C, MS

Course Objectives:

1. Appraise the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
2. Determine appropriate diagnostic tests to achieve accurate diagnosis.
3. Devise interventions that are effective and promote positive communication between staff, family & the older adult.
4. Apply techniques and identify strategies to avoid adverse drug events and drug disease interactions.
5. Develop individualized monitoring plans for geriatric patients through the evaluation of high risk medications.
6. Appraise at least three new guideline recommendations related to geriatric pharmacology.
7. Implement controlled substance/pain management contracts into practice.
8.  Prepare to manage symptoms of controlled substance and alcohol misuse and abuse in geriatric patients.
9.  Develop best practice methods for prescribing in the geriatric population.
10.  Determine strategies to diminish the occurrence of behavioral problems in individuals with dementia.
11.  Apply behavioral and environmental techniques to diminish challenging behavioral problems.
12.  Analyze how cognitive impairment in older individuals is affected by environment, caregiver schedules, and responses to the behaviors.
13.  Develop strategies to identify abuse and neglect.
14.  Distinguish etiologic and pathologic factors associated with neurological, orthopedic, abdominal, cardiovascular & pulmonary emergencies.
15.  Differentiate between typical aging and complex management of co-morbidities in the elderly.
16.  Develop age-sensitive principles for medication dosing and management to clinical scenarios.
17.  Propose key questions useful for identifying and managing polypharmacy in older adults