AAACEUs Blog
Return to Work with Brain Injury: Challenges and Strategies
By AAACEUs
This article addresses the challenges and strategies for returning to work after a brain injury. It offers valuable insights for healthcare professionals assisting individuals in their vocational rehabilitation journey. Learn more with AAACEUs' specialized courses.
Writing a Life Care Plan: A Guide
By AAACeus
Learn how to create an effective Life Care Plan with this step-by-step guide. Discover the importance of comprehensive assessment, multidisciplinary collaboration, and continuous monitoring in ensuring personalized and holistic care for individuals with chronic illnesses or disabilities. Enhance your skills with specialized courses from AAACEUs.
Understanding Dementia: A Comprehensive Guide
By AAACEUs
Discover the essential aspects of dementia, including symptoms, types, and management strategies, in this comprehensive guide. Learn about the various forms of dementia, effective communication techniques, and tips for creating a safe environment for those affected. This article also provides valuable guides for caregivers and healthcare professionals to enhance their support and care for individuals with dementia.
Understanding Brain Injury: Types, Symptoms, and Treatment
By AAACEUs
This article delves into the different types of brain injuries, their symptoms, and treatment options. It is a valuable resource for healthcare professionals seeking to enhance their understanding of brain injury management. Learn more with AAACEUs' specialized courses.
Understanding Alzheimer's Disease: Symptoms, Causes, and Care
By AAACEUs
Explore the complexities of Alzheimer's disease, from its symptoms and causes to effective care strategies in this informative article. Learn about the different stages of Alzheimer's, key risk factors, and diagnostic methods. This article also provides valuable resources and support options for caregivers, ensuring comprehensive care for individuals affected by Alzheimer's.
Depression and Multiple Sclerosis
By AAACEUs
Depression is a complication in most chronic disease processes. It prohibits the patient from healing, makes symptoms like pain more difficult to manage and generally decreases the patients' quality of life. For those who deal with chronically ill patients, this is not new information. However, with Multiple Sclerosis, depression is not just a complication, but could actually be one of the presenting symptoms of the disease.
Return to Work: Having the Right Plan in Place For Success
By AAACEUs
Assisting an employee through the return to work process after a leave of absence for a mental illness is a delicate and challenging job. How much information to share, what accommodations need to be made, who needs to be involved in the planned return, and how coworkers react are just a few of the challenges. Having a solid plan in place for the return to work (RTW) process is a valuable tool for any work environment.
The Challenges of Parkinson's Care: Tips For The Primary Caregiver
By AAACEUs
Taking care of someone with a chronic, debilitating disease is difficult. Caregiving is a 24/7 job and, as the disease progresses, it becomes more demanding.
DSM-5's New Term: Neurocognitive Disorders
By AAACEUs
In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) announced a major change regarding dementia when they released DSM-5. The noticeable change was that the dementia chapter in DSM-5 is titled "Neurocognitive Disorders", whereas in DSM-IV it was titled "Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic, and Other Cognitive Disorders."
Tips for Alzheimer's Caregivers
By AAACEUs
As healthcare professionals, it's important to understand the stress and challenges the primary caregiver is faced with on a daily basis. Many individuals who find themselves in the position of primary caregiver sometimes lack the knowledge of the disease process of Alzheimer's and what it means to be the caregiver.
SAMHSA's Resource Guide on Opioid Use in the Older Adult Population
By AAACEUs
With the opioid epidemic receiving increased attention over the last year, there is a lot of information available regarding opioid abuse. In particular, there has been a focus on the population aged 25-40 but there is also concern regarding opioid use/abuse amongst the elderly. The population of older adults who misuse opioids is projected to double from 2004 to 2020, from 1.2 percent to 2.4 percent.
JCAHO's New Standards for Pain Management and Assessment
By AAACEUs
In 2001, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) released their new pain management standards. These new standards led to a commonly held perception that should be seen as the "5th vital sign". At the time, patients' pain was not being managed well and the emphasis of the new guidelines was to address this concern. It is a commonly held belief that this led to a period of overprescribing that was one of the many factors that contributed to the opioid crisis.
Legal Marijuana and the Decrease in Opioid Use
By AAACEUs
As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local medical marijuana dispensary.
Opioid-Related Deaths - CDC's Report on Opioid Overdoses in the Emergency Department
By AAACEUs
Life expectancy has dropped in America for the first time since 1999. The reasons for this are complex, but one of the main culprits is the growing opioid epidemic in this country. As opioid abuse and opioid-related deaths receive increased attention, we're starting to see best practices by healthcare providers change and evolve.
Suicide Prevention - The NIMH's Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) Toolkit
By AAACEUs
Suicide is a global public health problem. Worldwide, suicide is the second leading cause of death for individuals 10 - 24 years old. According to the CDC, in 2015, more than 5,900 young individuals in the US committed suicide - even more common are suicide attempts and suicidal thoughts.
Human Trafficking - A Toolkit for Identifying Victims
By AAACEUs
Human trafficking is increasingly prevalent in our society and as healthcare professionals we encounter it more and more. Human trafficking is a criminal business that profits from the illegal transportation of people, typically for the purposes of forced labor or sexual exploitation. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, it is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world today and second largest - second only to drug trafficking and tied with illegal arms. Why has this become such an issue in modern day America?
Chronic Pain - A Guideline For Management and Treatment
By AAACEUs
This month, we're discussing chronic pain and highlighting a recent guideline put out by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense outlining its appropriate management and treatment. Chronic pain is one of the most common medical conditions. In the U.S. alone, approximately 100 million adults experience chronic pain and, as a healthcare professional, you encounter individuals suffering from chronic pain at every level of your practice.
The NOTICE Act and MOON: A year in, what's the implication?
By AAACEUs
In this month's article we discuss the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Eligibility Act that was adopted in August, 2016. We hear from many professionals impacted by the NOTICE Act that adoption of the new rules and process has come with the standard set of growing pains and additional controversies. In this article, we'll discuss some of the most common controversies and points of confusion for both patients and professionals alike.
