Productive Aging Certificate

This course focuses on supports and barriers to aging in place. The importance of assisting older adults to age productively within his or her own environment and the role of interdisciplinary coordination of care is investigated. Topics include social interaction, community mobility, accessibility, and intergenerational relationships.

The unique challenges of older adults living with chronic diseases will be explored. Economic costs and impact on communities, healthcare system, and society will be studied. Focus is on evidence-based interventions to prevent, support, and assist older adults chronic illness living in community and institutional settings.

Focus is on the role of measurement and the importance of evidence-based outcome measures for assessment in the older adult population. Specialized assessments and outcome measures will be discussed, including documenting change in one or more constructs over time, assessing and describing complex and comorbid conditions, formulating prognoses, and evaluating the effects of interventions at the individual and population level.

Focus is on the unique challenges of mental health diagnoses, including cognitive impairments, superimposed upon the aging process. Neuroscience concepts related to aging, the psychopathology of later life, and intervention strategies for older adults with a mental health diagnosis are discussed.