Professional and Continuing Education

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Cognitive and language impairments associated with dementia lead to changes in communication abilities, which negatively impact everyday conversations, daily activities, the ability to age in place, and quality of life for both people with dementia and their care partners. These changes can lead to increased social isolation and poorer health outcomes. Despite these challenges, there are a growing number of options for supporting social connections and better communication for families living with dementia. In this talk, Dr. Roberts will discuss the current science of communication changes in dementia, insights from the Communication Bridge clinical trials program, and practical strategies for supporting communication and social connections for people and families living with dementia.

Instructor

Professor Angela Roberts holds a joint appointment in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Department of Computer Science at Western University in Toronto, Canada. She is also a speech-language pathologist. Dr. Roberts is the Canada Research Chair in Data Analytics and Digital Health in Cognitive Aging and Dementia. She is a founding Co-Director of Western’s Collaborative Specialization in Machine Learning in Health and Biomedical Sciences and is a Research Associate with the Canadian Centre of Activity and Aging.

Her impactful research program improves cognitive aging outcomes through rigorously validating connected speech signatures that detect and monitor cognitive decline, building phenotypes and predictive models of cognitive aging trajectories, and developing interventions that address communication challenges experienced by persons with dementia and their families. Her clinical research program uses telehealth service delivery systems that have a global reach. She is the Canadian lead for the SuperAging Research Initiative, a study examining factors associated with exceptional cognitive aging. Her influence extends to health charity organizations as a research board member for Parkinson Canada and an author of internationally distributed patient and family education materials.

Professor Roberts’ work is funded by the Ontario Brain Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the National Institutes of Health (U.S.), including an early investigator award from the National Institutes of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

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Date: 2/14/2025 | Meeting Time 8 am-12 pm CST | Live online via Zoom | Cost: $109 until 1/14/25, then $129

The management of ethics, boundaries and confidentiality is especially critical for human service professionals. This workshop will address the unique issues encountered during the provision of social services and therapy. The emergence of technology and its complications will be addressed to highlight the changing trends in ethical practice in the 21st century.

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