Caring for a person living with dementia requires a unique set of psychosocial skills that are not often taught to caregivers. Without basic skills in listening actively or recognizing emotions in persons living with dementia, caregivers can find their work especially challenging.
The Emotion-Focused Communication Professional Certificate teaches strategies that enable caregivers to better manage their own feelings and those of their care recipients. These strategies are designed to build a stronger relationship and more positive care experience for caregivers and care recipients alike.
The course is designed for direct care workers and other caregivers. The focus is on providing care to an individual living with dementia but the course is relevant to any caregiving situation.
The Emotion Focused Communication Training was awarded the 2023 Mather Institute Promising Practice Award for creating an effective online training opportunity for caregivers. Additionally, our Emotion Focused Communication Training manuscript was awarded the Mather Institute Innovative Research on Aging Silver Award.
Benefits include:
- Flexibility — the course is divided into 6 lessons (each 15-30 minutes) which you can complete at your own pace. The course does not need to be completed in one sitting.
- Interactive exercises built in to enhance learning — video clips show caregivers and older adults in everyday situations so you can see skills in action.
- Specific strategies to strengthen skills in active listening and communication — that lead to more satisfying relationships between caregivers and older adults.
- Certificate upon course completion
- Offered at a low cost
Emotion-Focused Communication Training costs $11.00. To sign up, visit the Emotion-Focused Communication Training course hosted by Miami University, add the course to your cart ($11.00) and check out.
For more detailed information regarding the Emotion-Focused Communication Training, check out the Preference Based Living team’s presentation from The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2021. In this video, presenter Katy Abbott shares background about the training, the concept of emotional intelligence (EQ), course objectives, and more!