Date/Time
6 CEs
This is a knowledge-based, in-person conference to offer professional development education to healthcare practitioners and caregivers focused on the aging population. Attendees will learn about purpose in life for older adults, how purpose creates and sustains health and well-being, the real dangers when people lose sense of purpose, how to achieve your best life, and the eight key wellness domains using the Whole-person Wellness Wheel model. Interactive skill building is included.
Presentation #1: “Purpose as Protection: Clinical Strategies for Cultivating Meaning and Structure in Older Adults”
Research consistently demonstrates that purpose in life serves as a protective factor against depression, anxiety, and cognitive and physical decline in older adults. Yet retirement, loss, and life transitions often erode the structure and meaning that sustained earlier decades. This interactive workshop equips health professionals with assessment strategies and evidence-based interventions to help older clients identify, develop, and maintain purpose. Participants will learn to recognize when diminished purpose contributes to presenting problems and gain practical tools to address this often-overlooked dimension of late-life mental health.
OBJECTIVES
• Identify clinical indicators that diminished purpose in life may be contributing to an older adult's presenting mental health concerns.
• Implement evidence-based assessment strategies and interventions to help older clients develop sustainable sources of meaning and daily structure.
• Apply research findings on purpose in life to case conceptualization and treatment planning with older adults experiencing depression, anxiety, or adjustment difficulties.
Presentation #2: “Designing Your Best Life: Tools for Purpose and Whole-Life Wellness”
This session explores how purpose evolves across the lifespan, especially after retirement, and how reflecting on our “best days” can guide the life we want moving forward. Using the eight domains of wellness and the Wellness Wheel, we’ll examine practical strategies for planning, motivation, and reflection. Participants will gain tools to support whole-person growth and help individuals navigate their aging journey with clarity, resilience, and intention.
OBJECTIVES
• Describe how a sense of purpose shifts across the lifespan particularly in the years following retirement.
• Apply reflective strategies, such as identifying past “best days” to help people clarify future goals and sources of meaning.
• Use the eight domains of wellness and the Wellness Wheel to support planning, motivation, and whole-person wellness throughout the aging journey.
Location:
Eastern Shore Higher Education Center, 1st floor, 1000 College Circle, Wye Mills, MD 21679
Located on the campus of Chesapeake College
Sponsored By: Eastern Shore Area Health Education Center (ESAHEC) in partnership with the Geriatrics and Gerontology Education and Research (GGEAR) Program, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the Johns Hopkins Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program (JH GWEP)
Cost:
General Registration: $50
Student Registration: $15 (Must use school email and advisor name when registering.)
Geri-ED Registration: No charge (The Geri-ED code must be entered when registering to have the registration fee waived.)
SIX CEUs: $90 (Those requesting CEUs must pay the CEU fee in addition to the applicable registration fee.)
For questions email tcardillino@esahec.org