This course is student-initiated educational experience, guided by a faculty member that significantly supplements the core curriculum of the certificate and provides specialized focus training in aging.

The course is designed to provide students with a general overview of dementia and its subtypes.  Students will become familiar with current evidence in the study of dementia from across disciplines including epidemiology, biology, psychology, and sociology.  Practical issues surrounding the care of dementia patients from a professional and personal perspective will also be presented.  Participation in online group discussions will be required.

This course is an in-depth look at the intersection of aging and communication in present-day society, with a specific focus on late-middle-aged and older adults.  Topics explored will include health and healthcare, media, cross-generational and socio-political issues.

This term-long, 3 credit online-only course, will focus on collection development, reference, and education services for older adults, and their professional and family caregivers.  The course will cover the critical evaluation of materials in print, non-print, and electronic formats, and a discussion of information services provided by healthcare organizations, community agencies, medical center and hospital libraries, public libraries which serve an aging population, and academic libraries serving students in the helping professions.

The focus in this class is on the theories and principles from the sciences central to the delivery of health care to the elderly.  Emphasis is on assessment and health promotion, management of common health problems, nutrition and aging, geriatric pharmacology, psychosociology and psychopathology of aging, geriatric health issues.

Methods of intervention with the suicidal and terminally ill patient and his family, covering ethical problems related to right to life and right to death issues, explication of Kubler-Ross' five stages of dying, religious orientations to death and dying, and pathological and normal grief reactions.

This course provides experiential learning in coordinating occupational therapy research, including obtaining IRB approval, getting informed consent, participating in data collection, and managing data quality.