Alzheimer's
Foundation of America

Loading Events

« All Events

  • This event has passed.

Gaining a Deeper Understanding of Dementia and Substance Misuse to Eliminate Stigma – A LIVE, INTERACTIVE Webinar Training

Clinical Course

July 19 @ 2:00 pm 4:00 pm EDT

LIVE Interactive Webinar

In American society, often times individuals with substance use are highly stigmatized and this can have a major impact on health and wellness. In this live interactive workshop, we will be taking a deep look into the relationship between dementia and substance use. We will discuss Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as well the impacts stress can have on our brains, and how this can be exacerbated due to substance use. We will additionally learn about how different substances like alcohol, marijuana and opioids impact different parts of our brain and in turn how that relates to dementia and brain health. Our goal for this presentation is to be able to create effective, meaningful ways to treat individuals who use substances or may be impacted by dementia. This means being able to have knowledge on screening and treatment tools as well as understanding the significant barriers individuals who use substances may face. As a particularly vulnerable population in society, who may feel internal and external stigma, it is vital to understand how we as a community can connect with them to improve well-being. Lastly, we will be discussing how to incorporate the family and support systems into recovery to ensure we are focusing on holistic health. We hope this presentation will help to show professionals how to alleviate stigma among individuals with substance use and dementia, treat patients with dignity and compassion, illustrate to individuals that changes in the brain are influenced by several varying factors and continue to guide treatment plans with knowledge at the forefront.  

From this workshop you will learn to:

  1. Define addiction and different forms of substance use 
  2. Identify the relationship between substance use and dementia 
  3. Describe stigma and understand substance-use and dementia-related stigma 
  4. Assess different barriers to access and meaningful treatments for intervention 
  5. Apply effective strategies to reduce stigma and in turn increase the health and well-being of individuals with substance use 

A complete course description, including objectives, agenda, speaker bio and cancellation policy, is available here.