Medicine Archives

About This Course:

This health course will focus on the mental health issues of people with intellectual disability.

You will learn about the complexities of diagnosing mental health issues in people with intellectual disabilities and the types of disorders, assessments, screenings, and treatments used. There will also be a special focus on the legal and ethical complexities in health practice with patients who often require substituted consent.

This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of advanced medical, allied health, and disability. It can also be used as workforce education for professionals who are interested in mental health.

What You’ll Learn:

mental health issues and disorders
mental health assessments and screenings
challenging behaviors
treatments
legal and ethical issues

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare

Understand the barriers and enablers

Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World

Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability

Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability

3 Courses 4 Months 1 - 2 Hours per week

Complete Program $159.30

Program Details

Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Nick is the former Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Queensland. He is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician and has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He is trained in general practice, and has developed interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability.

Miriam Taylor

Miriam is the former Education Coordinator at the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. She has a wealth of educational design experience for multi-users including people with intellectual disability, their families, disability organisations and health practitioners. Miriam has established an ongoing international collaboration with and is an invited contributor to the first World Disability Report for the World Health Organisation.

About This Course:

This health course will examine the specific physical health issues that affect people with an intellectual disability including, oral health, syndrome specific health issues, health communication, especially for non-verbal patients, sexual health, and interactions between tertiary and primary healthcare systems. There is a special section on complex care including issues associated with aging and spasticity, and the health impacts of epilepsy.

This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of medical, allied health, and disability. It can also be used as workforce education for medical professionals in this field.

What You’ll Learn:

common health conditions
health assessments and health promotion
oral health
syndrome specific health issues
complex care associated with aging, epilepsy and spasticity

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare

Understand the barriers and enablers

Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World

Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability

Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability

3 Courses 4 Months 1 - 2 Hours per week

Complete Program $159.30

Program Details

Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Nick is the former Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Queensland. He is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician and has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He is trained in general practice, and has developed interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability.

Miriam Taylor

Miriam is the former Education Coordinator at the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. She has a wealth of educational design experience for multi-users including people with intellectual disability, their families, disability organisations and health practitioners. Miriam has established an ongoing international collaboration with and is an invited contributor to the first World Disability Report for the World Health Organisation.

About This Course:

This health course focuses on the stories of people with intellectual disabilities around the world, as well as their families and supporters.

You will learn about the challenges and aid received in healthcare for people with intellectual disabilities, including their experience of specific syndromes and communication difficulties, and how they stay healthy.

Learners will also hear from family members as they discuss complex care, rare syndromes, early death, and planning for independence. The end of the course will focus on the history of treatment, the impact of rights’ movements on healthcare delivery, common health conditions, and health promotion.

This course is open to anyone, but will be of particular relevance to those in the field of advanced medical, allied health, and disability. This course can also be used as workforce education for medical professionals in this field.

What You’ll Learn:

Insights into the daily life of those with intellectual disabilities and their families
Challenges and obstacles experienced and how these are overcome
Specific healthcare needs and how to promote good health for people with an intellectual disability

XSeries Program in Intellectual Disability Healthcare

Understand the barriers and enablers

Through My Eyes - Intellectual Disability Healthcare around the World

Well and Able - Improving the Physical Health of People with Intellectual Disability

Able-Minded - Mental Health and People with Intellectual Disability

3 Courses 4 Months 1 - 2 Hours per week

Complete Program $159.30

Program Details

Meet Your Instructors:

Nicholas Lennox

Nick is the former Director of the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability at the University of Queensland. He is a researcher, educator, advocate and clinician and has specialised in the health of adults with intellectual disability since 1992. He is trained in general practice, and has developed interventions to improve the health of people with intellectual disability.

Miriam Taylor

Miriam is the former Education Coordinator at the Queensland Centre for Intellectual and Developmental Disability in the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland. She has a wealth of educational design experience for multi-users including people with intellectual disability, their families, disability organisations and health practitioners. Miriam has established an ongoing international collaboration with and is an invited contributor to the first World Disability Report for the World Health Organisation.

About This Course:

What is Resilience? Resilience is often perceived as an abstract term that varies in meaning for people from different fields and backgrounds. Nevertheless, it has been a “buzzword” in the discussion around crises and disasters in recent decades.

In this course, we will introduce structure into this confusion and provide clearer definitions for the intangible multidisciplinary and sometimes ambiguous term resilience.

Subsequently, this understanding will serve to improve the learners’ ability to manage crisis situations, as well as to help them plan and focus interventions and protective measures in the field of emergency preparedness and response.

At the individual level, this course will provide learners with personal tools and resources for better coping in various stressful situations.

Resilience is a capacity of society, with implications for day-to-day life as well as in crisis situations. The familiarity with the concept and its’ broad aspects, is an asset to any individual in the pragmatic applied sense, beyond the academic attainment.

This course will introduce the concept of resilience and its relevance in various arenas and times.

We will portray the impact of the disaster on individuals, families, communities, organizations, infrastructure and the interfaces between them.

We will introduce the role of media and social media in the emergency management lifecycle

You will learn how to measure resilience, how to use this assessment to guide you in building response plans for emergency situations.

What You’ll Learn:

What is resilience
What is the role of resilience in disaster situations
How can one improve resilience
Introduction to Coping
The BASIC PH model of coping
Continuities
Grief and bereavement
The effects of emergencies and disasters on individuals
Who is vulnerable – at-risk populations
Helping the helpers
Factors of Community Resilience
The role of media during disasters
Effective media communication during emergencies
CERTs – Community Emergency Response Teams

Meet Your Instructors:

Limor Aharonson-Daniel

Head, PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research, School of Public Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) at IsraelX Prof. Limor Aharonson-Daniel, VP for Global Engagement, is the founding director of the PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research at BGU. She is a Professor in the School of Public Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Limor is an international expert on injury epidemiology and played a significant role in the academization of the field of emergency preparedness and response and in the development of innovative approaches and tools for the study of emergency situations. Among these are the Barel body region by nature of injury diagnosis matrix, Multiple Injury Profiles and the Conjoint Community Resiliency Assessment Measure (CCRAM).

Mooli Lahad

Professor of Psychology, Tel Hai Academic college at IsraelX Prof. Lahad is the founder and President of the Community Stress Prevention Center Kiryat-Shmona , and Professor of Psychology at Tel-Hai College ,Israel He is a Senior medical psychologist; Author and co-author of over 35 books and many articles on the topics of Communities under Stress, and Coping with Life threatening Situations. He is the developer of the Integrative Model of Resiliency BASIC –Ph,”Islands of resiliency” community recovery model and the See Far CBT psychotrauma treatment protocol.

Ruvie Rogel

PhD at IsraelX Dr. Rogel is a lecturer at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Dr. Rogel develops and facilitates workshops and programs in the field of personal, community and national resilience for the public and private sectors. He serves deputy to the CEO of the Community Stress Prevention Center Kiryat-Shmona , and Professor of Psychology at Tel-Hai College ,Israel

Dmitry Leykin

PhD at IsraelX Lecturer at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev and Head of Research at the Community Stress Prevention Center in Kiryat Shmona.

Michal Linder Zarankin

Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev at IsraelX Dr. Linder is a Research Fellow and a Lecturer at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Her research focuses on inter/intra-organizational behavior before, during and after crises and disasters, with an emphasis on the range of managerial, group and community organizations' responses to emergencies. In addition to her research, Dr. Linder has taught various courses on emergency and disaster management in the U.S. at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Course Overview:

Have you ever wondered what viruses actually are?

Have you been curious about the ways they invade our bodies, attack our cells and make us sick? Come and learn what viruses are made of and understand the mechanisms of how they hijack and take over our cells.

There is no need for a background in science – just bring your curious mind!

Our bodies are made of cells, which are amazing molecular machines. So long as everything is in working order, we feel great. But surprisingly, these unbelievably tiny parasites made of Protein and Genes – viruses – can take over and cause serious damage to our bodies.

Step by step, this course will teach you how the cells of our bodies work to keep us healthy. We will then explore the vast kingdom of viruses; especially those that have caused epidemics like the flu, AIDS and Ebola. Finally, we will systematically review our immune system, how it identifies “the enemies,” and how it takes them out.

What You’ll Learn:

The makeup of cell structures (organelles) and their functions;
What happens to our body when it is infected by viruses;
How our Immune System operates to protect us;
The pros and cons of vaccination.

Meet Your Instructor:

Jonathan Gershoni

Prof. at Tel Aviv University Prof. Jonathan Gershoni, born in Israel, received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Post-doctoral training at Yale School of Medicine. For 30 years he has investigated the immune response towards viruses such as HIV, HCV and SARS CoV. He continues to develop novel methods for the computational characterization of the antibody composition in blood and applications towards new immuno-diagnostics and preventive vaccines. Prof. Gershoni has worked as a visiting scientist at the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda MD and at Boston University - Department of Physics. He has repeatedly been awarded "Teacher of the Year" at Tel Aviv University and has served as the Director of the Israeli AIDS Task Force. Prof. Gershoni lives in Israel with his wife, three daughters and 10 grandchildren.

Course Overview

“If history is our guide, we can assume that the battle between the intellect and will of the human species and the extraordinary adaptability of microbes will be never-ending.” (1)

Despite all the remarkable technological breakthroughs that we have made over the past few decades, the threat from infectious diseases has significantly accelerated. In this course, we will learn why this is the case by looking at the fundamental scientific principles underlying epidemics and the public health actions behind their prevention and control in the 21st century.

This is the first (orgins of novel pathogens) of the four courses, covers these topics:

Epidemics: Past, Present and Future
Discussion on Ebola and Zika Outbreak, and Supplementary Module on Next Generation Informatics for Global Health
Ecology, Evolution and Emergence of Infectious Diseases
Medical Detective: Bug Hunting in Epidemics

What You’ll Learn

Historic transitions and emergence of epidemic infections
Factors leading to infectious disease emergence and re-emergence
Regions with higher risk and estimated economic costs of emerging infectious disease
Ecology, evolution and emergence of infectious diseases such as Zika, Ebola, H5N1, H7N9, H1N1 and Swine Influenza
Discovery, proof of association and causation, and control (case review on SARS)

Meet Your Instructors

Gabriel M. Leung

Professor at The University of Hong Kong Gabriel Leung is Dean of the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He is also Chair Professor in the School of Public Health and honorary consultant in family medicine and primary care. Previously he was Head of the Department of Community Medicine. Gabriel Leung served in government as Hong Kong’s first Under Secretary for Food and Health and fifth Director of the Chief Executive's Office. He regularly advises various national and international agencies including the World Health Organization, World Bank and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kwok-Yung Yuen

Professor at The University of Hong Kong Professor Kwok-Yung Yuen, Chair of Infectious Diseases at HKU, has the rare distinction of being a microbiologist, surgeon and physician. He is a fellow of both the UK and Hong Kong Colleges of Pathologists, Surgeons and Physicians, and the American College of Physicians. KY Yuen was the first Director of the State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases at HKU– the first State Key Laboratory outside the Mainland. He was also the Scientific Co-director of the HKU-Pasteur Research Centre. KY Yuen played a key role in the discovery of the agent causing SARS, and also published the first clinical and laboratory diagnostic paper on Influenza A H5N1 in the Lancet.

Joseph Wu

Professor at The University of Hong Kong Joseph Wu leads the infectious disease modeling research at the HKU School of Public Health. His primary research is on influenza epidemiology and control, particularly focusing on pandemic preparedness and response. His work primarily entails developing mathematical models to assess the potential benefits and logistical requirement of influenza epidemic mitigation and surveillance strategies. He is a member of the Scientific Committee for the Center for Health Protection in Hong Kong. Joseph Wu is an affiliated faculty member of the Center for Communicable Diseases Dynamics (CCDD) at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is the coordinator of the annual CCDD infectious disease modeling course.

Mark Jit

Professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Mark Jit works as both a Senior Lecturer in Vaccine Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and also in the Modelling and Economics Unit of Public Health England. He teaches postgraduate and professional courses on modelling and economics of infectious diseases. His main research interest is in epidemiological and economic modelling of infectious disease control interventions to support evidence-based public health decision making. In particular, his work has helped inform immunisation policy on a range of vaccines (including HPV, pneumococcal, rotavirus and influenza vaccines) in both developed and developing countries.

About This Course:

This course will empower non-prescribing providers to directly impact the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States through increased knowledge and tools that will transform practice and policies. The course will inform you about the opioid epidemic and provide information and research about evidence-based strategies that are focused on prevention, intervention, education, or policy.

This open learning course is designed primarily for non-prescribing healthcare, behavioral health, dental and social services professionals, as well as graduate-level students in these fields. Other individuals may also benefit from this course such as educators and physicians. Continuing Education (CE) for licensure is available upon successful completion of course content.

As a learner, you have the ability to select any or all of the modules and topics that interest you. You can complete the course in a linear or non-linear structure according to your preferred viewing order. This course is taught by experts in the field of opioid prevention, intervention, treatment, and policy. Through lectures, panels and interviews, knowledge checks and quizzes, and additional readings and activities, you can explore topics that are most relevant to your work or practice.

The course was developed by three University of Michigan programs, including the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation (IHPI), Michigan-Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (Michigan OPEN) and the CDC-funded University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center.

The University of Michigan Medical School designates this enduring material for a maximum of 15 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. The University of Michigan Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

This activity contributes to the CME component of the American Board of Anesthesiology’s redesigned Maintenance of Certification in Anesthesiology™ (MOCA®) program, known as MOCA 2.0®. Please consult the ABA website, www.theABA.org, for a list of all MOCA 2.0 requirements.

If you would like to earn CME/MOCA credit for participating in this course, please review the information here prior to beginning the activity.

This course is approved by the Michigan Social Work Continuing Education Collaborative-Approval #101619-02 for 15 CE hours. The Collaborative is the approving body for the Michigan Board of Social Work.

What You’ll Learn:

Explain the factors that contributed to the current opioid crisis.
Understand the pathophysiology of pain and its treatment, including what opioids are and how they work.
Understand how to reduce unintended use and misuse of opioids using various strategies, including prescribing guidelines, surveillance, safe disposal of unused opioids, and intervention messaging.
Identify what strategies and tools you can employ to impact the safe use of opioids across clinical care settings and with a variety of populations.
Describe best practices for assessing and treating opioid use disorder (OUD) and explain the evidence that informs these best practices.
Understand different aspects of public policy that can impact the opioid epidemic.

Meet Your Instructor:

Karen Farris

Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation

Dr. Farris' health services research focuses on social theories to examine how individuals manage medications, and how pharmacists in primary care settings influence medication use. She studies individuals' medication adherence and reasons for non-adherence, including concern and necessity beliefs, and self-reporting adverse effects. She has quantified the impact of pharmacists’ care on medication adherence and health outcomes. Dr. Farris is a member of the IHPI Institute Leadership Team.

About this course

Master the fundamental components of advanced literature searching in the health sciences.

Informationist Mark MacEachern and a team of fellow health sciences informationists at the University of Michigan designed this course for anyone responsible for constructing literature searches as part of their research. This course will specifically help professionals and researchers in the health sciences improve the overall quality and reporting of their literature searches.

After completing the course, you will better understand the importance of literature searches in health sciences work, the components of effective searches, and best practices to sufficiently report the search process. All learners who rely heavily on past research in their project work – regardless of their experience or current competence – will benefit from this practical learning experience.

What you’ll learn

The components of advanced searches
How to identify the types of projects dependent on advanced searching
How to construct advanced searches
Ways to uncover search-related biases that impact projects
Procedures for citation management
Best practices for reporting search strategies

Meet your instructors

Mark MacEachern

Health Sciences Informationist at Taubman Health Sciences Library, The University of Michigan

Mark MacEachern is a health sciences informationist at the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library. As an informationist, Mark teaches health sciences students about evidence-based practice and advanced search methodologies, and frequently collaborates with health professionals on review projects. In 2013, he co-developed the flipped, continuing education course Systematic Reviews: Opportunities for Librarians, which empowers information experts to engage in such projects, and lead the course through 2017. He has also been invited to join the faculty of the Medical Library Association's Research Training Institute, which will see its first cohort in 2018. Mark received his Master of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2007.

Jean Song

Health Sciences Informationist at Taubman Health Sciences Library, The University of Michigan

Jean Song is the Assistant Director for Academic and Clinical Engagement (ACE) for the University of Michigan’s (UM) Taubman Health Sciences Library (THL). She began her career as the Reference Coordinator at the Public Health Library & Informatics at UM and then moved to Pfizer Global Research and Development where she worked as a systems administrator and project manager for their document management and adverse event reporting systems. She returned to UM as the Bioinformationist for THL and a liaison to the National Center for Integrative Biomedical Informatics (NCBI). She then headed and built the Research and Informatics unit at THL and moved into her current role as the lead of ACE. The ACE unit at THL has responsibility for curricular integration and teaching and learning in departments across the schools of health sciences, expert searching and systematic reviews, and clinical information management services. Jean has her B.S. in biological sciences from Stanford University and her MSI from the UM’s School of Information.

Tyler Nix

Health Sciences Informationist at Taubman Health Sciences Library, The University of Michigan

Tyler Nix is an informationist at the University of Michigan Taubman Health Sciences Library, where he partners with health sciences students and faculty on education and research projects related to advanced literature searches, research impact metrics and tools, and data visualization resources. Prior to the University of Michigan, he was an Associate Fellow at the National Library of Medicine. Tyler received his Master of Science in Library Science degree from the University of Kentucky in 2015.

Judith Smith

Health Sciences Informationist at Taubman Health Sciences Library, The University of Michigan

Judy Smith is a Health Sciences Informationist at the Taubman Health Sciences Library (THL), at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Judy partners with faculty, students, and staff in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the School of Public Health. In that role, she works to integrate information skills and resources into the curriculum, providing numerous instruction sessions and consultations on advanced literature review techniques. Additionally, Judy engages with public health research initiatives, especially as they relate to health policy. She also serves as a point person for information needs at an interdisciplinary research complex, the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), which houses the Institute for Health Care Policy and Innovation. Judy is also working with a team of informationists at THL on a mixed methods study to measure the library’s impact patient and population care. Judy holds a Master of Science, Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Michigan.

About this course

Are you a mental health provider who wants to more effectively work with the increasing spiritual and religious diversity in your clients? Do you know how to help clients who encounter spiritual and religious distress? Or how to harness clients’ spiritual resources to support positive therapeutic outcomes? If so, this course is for you!

Spiritual Competency Training in Mental Health is a program designed to train mental health providers in basic spiritual and religious competencies. Taught by instructors who are experts in the field of religion/spirituality and mental health, this course will equip providers with greater confidence and competence helping clients with religious and spiritual issues. The program focuses on core spiritual competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that underlie effective mental health care and are common to mental health disciplines and therapeutic orientations. Basic competency in spiritual and religious issues in mental health is an ethical requirement for most professional boards and associations related to mental health clinical practice. Yet, few of us received this training in our graduate programs. This program bridges the current training gap.

The program consists of eight modules and takes about six to eight hours to complete. The modules consist of engaging learning activities, such as watching brief videos, reading text screens, listening to audio clips, and completing short reflection questions and knowledge check questions.

Mental health professionals (MD, PhD, Master’s level, and trainees) of all disciplines are welcome to participate. Therapists who complete the program will be eligible for 6 CE credits.

What you’ll learn

How to integrate spirituality and religion into clinical practice
Common stereotypes about religion/spirituality (RS)
The diversity of RS expressions (e.g., spiritual/religious beliefs, practices, and experiences)
Why it is important to address RS in treatment
The importance of the therapist’s own RS attitudes, beliefs, and practices
How to assess RS in clinical practice
How to help clients access RS resources
How to respond to RS problems that arise in treatment.

Prerequisites

Completed or currently enrolled in a professional graduate program for mental health (e.g., Master’s, PhD, MD, or trainee).

Frequently asked questions

Question:
Does this program qualify for continuing education (CE) credits?

Answer:
Yes! Upon completion of this program, you will be eligible for 6 CE credits. This program is co-sponsored by the Maryland Psychological Association and the Maryland Psychological Association Foundation. The Maryland Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Maryland Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content. It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their professional licensing board to see if these CE credits are applicable in his or her jurisdiction.

Who can take this course?

Unfortunately, learners from one or more of the following countries or regions will not be able to register for this course: Iran, Cuba and the Crimea region of Ukraine. While edX has sought licenses from the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to offer our courses to learners in these countries and regions, the licenses we have received are not broad enough to allow us to offer this course in all locations. EdX truly regrets that U.S. sanctions prevent us from offering all of our courses to everyone, no matter where they live.

Meet your instructors

Michelle Pearce

Assistant Professor, Program Director, Graduate School at University of Maryland, Baltimore

Michelle Pearce, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Dr. Pearce is also a clinical psychologist who researches the relationship between religion/spirituality, coping, and health, as well as the integration of spirituality into the practice of psychotherapy. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) at Duke University Medical Center and a second fellowship in Spirituality and Health at the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology, and Health. She directs three graduate certificate programs: Aging and Applied Thanatology, Integrative Health and Wellness, and Science Communication. She is the author of the book Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Christians with Depression: A Practical, Tool-Based Primer . Her areas of clinical expertise include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, spiritual and existential issues, mind-body stress reduction methods, and behavioral medicine to address the intersection of mental and physical illness.

Kenneth Pargament

Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Bowling Green State University

Kenneth Pargament is a Ph. D. in clinical psychology, professor emeritus of psychology at Bowling Green State University, and Adjunct Professor in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the Baylor College of Medicine. He has published over 300 articles on religion, spirituality, and health, and authored The Psychology of Religion and Coping: Theory, Research, Practice and Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy: Understanding and Addressing the Sacred. Dr. Pargament is Editor-in-Chief of the 2013 two-volume APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. Among his awards are the Oskar Pfister Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2009, the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Professional Chaplains in 2015, and the first Outstanding Applied Psychology of Religion and Spirituality Award from the American Psychological Association in 2017. He was recently cited as “One of the 50 Most Influential Living Psychologists in the World.” His current research interests focus on religious and spiritual struggles and spiritually integrated psychotherapy.

Learner testimonials

“This training has definitely increased my comfort level in integrating spiritualty and religion more often with the clients that I see. In addition, it has increased my therapeutic confidence in knowing where to go when this presents as a piece of a client’s identity and/or the presenting concern.”

Previous Participant

“This training has definitely increased my comfort level in integrating spiritualty and religion more often with the clients that I see. In addition, it has increased my therapeutic confidence in knowing where to go when this presents as a piece of a client’s identity and/or the presenting concern.”

Previous Participant

About this course

Are you a nurse, physical therapist or other healthcare professional who wants to learn more about Parkinson’s disease and how this movement disorder is managed?

Here are the key areas that will be addressed over 5 modules:

Approximately 1 million Americans and an estimated 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease (PD);
PD is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and while the exact cause is unknown, there are some known risk factors;
PD is characterized by a variety of motor symptoms (such as tremors, rigidity, and slowness of movement) as well as the lesser-known non-motor symptoms and neuropsychiatric symptoms;
The various classes of medications (primarily levodopa) used for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease will be discussed with an emphasis on proper dosing and timing to minimize dyskinesias and other side effects;
Other strategies to address the non-motor and neuropsychiatric manifestations are reviewed along with surgical management, such as lesioning and deep brain stimulation;
In addition to pharmacologic management, there are non-pharmacologic interventions, such as physical, speech and occupational therapies, as well as, exercise, which can play an important role in managing motor symptoms and optimizing function and quality of life;
Lastly, the key principles of care for the hospitalized patient with PD are examined, including the importance of giving medications prescribed for motor symptoms on time, which medications should be avoided and other care considerations.

What you’ll learn

What Parkinson’s disease is and how it is different from other common neurological disorders
Key motor, non-motor and neuropsychiatric symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Medications used to manage the motor symptoms and the importance of proper dosing and timing
Other treatment options, including surgical and non-pharmacologic approaches to address motor symptoms, and other strategies to address non-motor and neuropsychiatric manifestations
Key principles of medication administration and care when the person with PD is hospitalized
A better understanding of the “lived experience” of a person with PD

Meet your instructors

Mary DiBartolo

Professor, Fulton Endowed Professor of Geriatric Nursing & Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty at the Parkinson’s Foundation at Salisbury University

A graduate of Towson University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing. Earned Master’s degree in Business Administration from Salisbury University and PhD from University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Nursing. She is a professor of Nursing at Salisbury University (full-time since 1995), specializing in adult health/geriatric care with emphasis on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Is certified in gerontological nursing by the American Nurses Association since 1991, and earned her National League of Nursing certification as a nurse educator in 2012. She currently serves as the Fulton Endowed Professor of Geriatric Nursing at SU and completed the Edmond J. Safra Visiting Nurse Faculty Scholar Program on Parkinson’s Disease in 2015. Since 2002, has hosted over 290 Focus on Health educational series programs which air on PAC14 public access channel/YouTube.