Something that I haven't really mentioned on here yet is that I'm taking an online course through the University of Tasmania. It's a nine week course called 'Understanding Dementia'. The course content and assessment involves watching lectures and interviews, going through online modules, completing online quizzes and tests and participating in discussion boards. The university has opened it up to anyone who is interested and it is currently a free course. There are a variety of people taking the course, from health professionals to carers to people who have received a diagnosis of dementia. It makes the discussion groups quite interesting to hear from a variety of perspectives.
THE COURSE
Understanding Dementia is designed to be accessible and appealing to people from diverse backgrounds including:- Health professionals
- Community and residential facility support staff
- Health policymakers
- Social scientists
- People in the early stages of the disease, their families and carers
- Individuals with a general interest in dementia
Understanding Dementia provides an opportunity to engage with the perspectives of an international community, without requiring exams or assignments.
The course runs for 9 weeks total, but will be open for an extra two weeks after that if you need to catch up. To get the most out of this experience, you should expect to spend approximately 3 hours per week (for 9 weeks) completing the course activities. Once you have completed the final quizzes for all three units of the course: ‘the brain’, ‘the diseases’ and ‘the person’, you will be eligible to request a free certificate of participation, as well as a record of the notes you have taken throughout the course.
The course is divided into three main themes.
It has been really worthwhile so far and since I do quite a lot of work in aged care it definitely applies to my job. I am really interested in aged care and dementia and I really have to applaud UTas for offering this course. Dementia is going to become a major health care consideration in the next 20 years (even more so than now) and it's important for people to have an awareness and understanding of it.THE BRAIN
The Brain provides a
background on basic nervous system anatomy and function, followed by a
discussion of the diseases that cause dementia, current dementia
research and future directions.
- Nervous system anatomy
- Anatomy with Body Central
- Pathology of Dementia
- Future directions of Research
THE DISEASES
The Diseases
explores the differences between normal ageing and dementia, risk
factors, symptoms of dementia, the issues surrounding diagnosis, as well
as medical management.
- Difference between normal ageing and dementia
- Risk factors for dementia
- Domains of dementia
- Symptoms of advanced dementia
- Diagnosis of dementia
- Medical management
THE PERSON
The Person addresses
the difficulties in recognising symptoms, living with dementia,
progression and staging, palliation, behaviours, management and
alternative therapies.
- Insidious onset of dementia
- Living with dementia
- Dementia progression and staging
- Dementia palliation
- Dementia behaviours
- Alternative therapies
So I've been dedicating some of my spare time to that as well as a course on Cued Articulation, which involves using hand signals to represent each sound. If you haven't guessed, I'm still loving my job and all the opportunities I have to continue learning!
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Finally, speaking of my job, Grace (my boss) had her mastectomy last week. I stopped by her house today to give her a hand over about the patients she'll be taking over for me when I'm away. I feel pretty guilty about the timing of my trip, but she seems to be doing really well and should be able to manage while I'm gone. She's done six rounds of chemo, had her surgery, and next will be starting radiation. Cancer is a bugger. She was telling me about plans her family has in October to take a trip to New Zealand and it's great to hear about some happy things coming up in the future.
