ODL 360: Cognitive Impairment: Evaluation, Care Planning, and What’s New in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

Please make sure to check with your own state board to ensure the transferability of CE credit for an asynchronous course. Some state boards may place restrictions regarding the modality of training required for ethics credits to be awarded. If this training indicates ethics credits are available, please verify that your state allows them to be earned through an on-demand course format.

2 CREDIT HOURS APPROVED FOR:
Social Workers
ASWB ACE – 2 General CE Credits
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work – 2 Contact Hours
Psychologists
APA – 2 CE Credits
Counselors
NBCC ACEP – 2 Contact Hours
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners – 2 Contact Hours
Addiction Professionals
NAADAC – This course is not approved for NAADAC Contact hours.
Nurses
California Board of Registered Nursing – 2 Contact Hours
New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners – 2 Contact Hours
Case Managers
CCMC – 2 Contact Hours

Created On:  10/3/25                  

Target Audience:

This course is targeted for social workers, psychologists, counselors, nurses and case managers.

Overview:

This session will provide a practical, efficient method to evaluate cognitive concerns in the primary care setting and offer an update for providing high-quality care to patients who have Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Barak Gaster is a practicing primary care clinician who also has a decade of experience as a dementia expert. This workshop will be useful to anyone who works in primary care or a related field in which caring for those with diagnosed or undiagnosed cognitive impairment is part of their job.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the session, the participant will be able to:

• Evaluate cognitive concerns accurately and efficiently in the primary care setting.
• Identify best practices in counseling patients about a new diagnosis of cognitive impairment, implementing actionable steps to maintain brain health, including discontinuing harmful medications.
• Examine the benefits and limitations of newer diagnostic tests and pharmaceutical options for Alzheimer’s disease.
• List ways to manage common issues that arise as dementia progresses, including treating behavioral disturbances with non-pharmacological approaches and exploring what matters most to patients and families when having advance care planning discussions.

Presenter:

Barak Gaster, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine, University of Washington, Director of the Cognition in Primary Care Program

Dr. Gaster has been an educator and primary care physician since 1998, where he has gained a national reputation for creating solutions to difficult problems in medicine. He is a member of the Hastings Center Workgroup on Ethics and Dementia, a member of the Washington Dementia Action Collaborative, and on the leadership team that developed the most recent edition of the CDC’s Healthy Brain Initiative. The Dementia Directive he helped develop has been downloaded more than 150,000 times and has been featured in The New York Times and on NPR.