UPCOMING WORKSHOPS!
"Caring for Our Elderly:
Treating Sundowners, Depression, and
Other Mood Disturbances in Patients with Alzheimer's "
Friday, February 13th, 2009
Crown Plaza Edison
2055 Lincoln Highway
Edison, NJ 08817
(732) 287-3500
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See the topic outline below!
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"Uncovering the Mysteries of Alzheimer's Disease:
Plain Talk and Practical Tools"
Set up a workshop for 2009!!
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See the topic outline below!
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"Judging Amy: An Interactive Workshop on Evaluating
Decision-Making Fitness in the Cognitively Impaired Older Adult"
Set up a workshop for 2009!!
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See the topic outline below!
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What Others Are Saying About Dr. Kraus's Workshops and Talks
"Excellent workshop! Dr. Kraus was genuine, interesting, and knowledgeable!"
"Very easy to listen to and follow."
"I have attended several workshops on Alzheimer's and aging in the past 15 years. This has been the best. The depth and presentation of information was excellent."
"I enjoyed the humor and little exercises to keep us alert."
"Very personable, enthusiastic, organized, great slides, positive learning techniques."
"Very informative, especially relating to new developments."
"Appreciated the addition of fun demonstrations and games interspersed with the materials. I have attended three other geriatric workshops. Dr. Kraus's is the best!"
"Case examples were very helpful. Very responsive to questions. Dynamic style made it easy to stay engaged."
"A wonderful down to earth presenter with a lot of knowledge."
"Dr. Kraus took a difficult subject and kept it interesting. He brought it down to a lay person's understanding."
"Very, very good! I recommend this training for new workers as well as veteran workers with the aged. I'd like to see this workshop available to families and caregivers in our community." "I thoroughly enjoyed this -- it applied to both my professional life as a medical social worker and to my personal life because my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's."
"Absolutely outstanding!!! Very helpful -- Thank you!"
"Caring for Our Elderly" Seminar Objectives and Topic Outline
The prevalence of Alzheimer's Disease is growing at an alarming rate. Nursing homes are filling with patients whose problems are taking more and more time to care for. Community care providers are seeing more people in their homes whose thinking is not clear and who are exhibiting far more disturbances in their mood than ever before. Families are desperate for information on how to best care for their loved one. This workshop has been designed with this in mind: how to care for an aging population with Alzheimer's Dementia.
In this highly interactive workshop, you will develop a set of tools that will help you more effectively identify, screen for, and address a variety of disturbances in Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Kraus will teach you specific strategies to better understand the illness, how it is treated, and how caretakers can effectively work with the illness on a day-to-day basis.
* Workshop participants will learn how to identify Alzheimer's Disease
and other dementias
* Participants will learn the newest medicines in the fight against
Alzheimer's
* How to identify the characteristics of sundowners syndrome and what
can be done about it
* How to appreciate the subtleties of depression, anxiety and other mood
disturbances
* How to convey essential medical information on psychotic symptoms in
Alzheimer's
* How to apply 4 fundamental strategies in talking to people with
Alzheimer's
* How to address the 20 most common behavioral problems in
Alzheimer's
Topic Outline
* What is Alzheimer's Dementia?
* The Natural Aging Process
* Risk Factors and Your Odds of Getting Alzheimer's
* Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Symptoms
* Anatomical , Microscopic, and Genetic Evidence
* What is Sundowner's? How do I Identify It?
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What is Delirium?
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Distinguishing Between Delirium and Alzheimer's * How is a Patient Evaluated for Dementia?
* How to Take a Good History
* Standardized Physician's Workup for Alzheimer's
* The Mini-Mental State and Full Mental Status Exams
* Psychological tests for Alzheimer's
* A Hierarchy of Functional Abilities in Alzheimer's * Guidelines for Conducting a Competency Evaluation
* How Can I Evaluate for Disturbances in Mood and Perception
* A Profile of the Depressed Elderly
* Scales to Measure Depression and Alzheimer's
* Is It Dementia or Pseudodementia?
* Psychotic Symptoms in Alzheimer's
* How Does the Physician Treat Dementia, Sundowners, Depression,
and Anxiety? What Can Caregivers Do to Treat Sundowners?
* Acetylcholine and Cholinesterase Inhibitors * Alternative Medicines
* The Role of Cholesterol in Alzheimer's
* The Newest Medicines
* Medicines Addressing Other Mental Health Symptoms
* 12 rules for Optimizing the Environment
* How Can I Relate to Someone with Dementia?
* The Relationship is Everything
* The Unconscious in the Elderly
* Listening in Metaphor
* Reinforcement/Avoidance in the Depressed Alzheimer's Patient
* Family Dynamics and Alzheimer's
* Caregiver Burden and Stress
* Dealing with Agitation in Alzheimer's
* What Activities Can Minimize the Risk and Progression of
Alzheimer’s Dementia?
Judging Amy Seminar Objectives and Topic Outline
One of the most stressful events of family life is confronting the question of a parent's or sibling's or spouse's ability to make sound decisions. By accepting a referral to assess decision-making abilities, you can provide essential answers to the person being assessed as well as to those who are close to them. This interactive workshop has been designed to assist all psychologists who are doing or wish to expand their practice by doing "competency evaluations." Regardless of your specialty - whether it's geropsychology, neuropsychology, forensic psychology, clinical psychology, or if you are a general practice clinician who wishes to learn more about this valuable and rapidly growing area of practice - this workshop can provide you added tools to ply your trade in a more competent and enlightened way. Conducting capacity evaluations assists the court in its task and almost always calms the family by filling the abyss of uncertainty with valuable information. Surprisingly, very little is generally known in the legal, medical, psychiatric, and psychological communities about assessing, evaluating, and making judgments regarding the capacities of cognitively impaired older adults. This workshop is designed to provide benchmark guidelines and protocols in assessing the cognitive, emotional, and functional capacities of this growing segment of our population.
This interactive workshop will utilize didactic instruction, as well as mock assessments, case studies, and small and large group discussion. *
Workshop participants will learn the variety of conditions leading to
decisional incapacity.
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Participants will learn standardized approaches in determining decision-
making abilities.
* Workshop participants will learn about the utility of test instruments
commonly used in assessing cognitive, emotional, and functional
impairments in the older adult.
* Participants will learn how to better translate their findings into a form
that the judicial system needs and appreciates.
Topic Outline
* The Judge's Perspective
* Historical Perspectives
* Pitfalls in Assessing Decision-Making Capacity
* Today's Standards of Practice
* The Six Pillars of Assessment
* The Judicial Analysis of Evidence
* Problems with Clinician-Based Testimony
* Limited Guardianships and Other Alternatives
* The Psychologist's Perspective
* The Myth of the "Capac-o-meter"
* Professional Competence
* Steps in the Capacity Evaluation
* Ability Domains in Capacity Assessment
* Diagnosis
* Questions for the Clinical Interview
* The Standard Medical Workup for Delirium and Dementia
* Cognitive, Behavioral, Emotional Symptoms in Dementia
* Differential Diagnosis of Depression, Delirium, and Dementia
* Standardized Tests Used in Capacity Assessments
* Issues in Test Selection
* The Importance of Functional Assessments
* The Client's Perspective
* When is an Evaluation Really Needed?
* Possible Interventions Prior to an Evaluation
* The Process of Engagement
* Mirroring Responses
* Deflecting Aggression
* Weighing Probable Gains and Risks
* Applying the Principles
* "Frank" - A Case Analysis
* Drawing Effective Conclusions
* Effective Documentation |
