Decisional Capacity Assessment Professional Training Program

With Karin Taifour, MA, LMHC, GMHS

Wednesdays, March 5, April 2, May 7, June 4, 2025 8:30am- 4:30pm PDT

This program has been approved for 24 CEUs from the Washington Chapter of the NASW for Licensed Social Workers, Family & Marriage Therapists and Licensed Mental Health Counselors as well as the WMHCA For Washington State Licensed Mental Health Practitioners

The Elder Education Institute at Sound Generations is excited to announce the launch of our new Decisional Capacity Assessment Professional Training Program. The only program of its kind in the United States, this program will give professionals who work with older adults the tools they need to correctly assess their clients’ capacity to make sound decisions about their own lives.

Many professionals are often called upon to determine how fit a client is to assume full responsibility for their own life decisions, but most lack proper training to do so with confidence. This training program is suitable for social workers, licensed mental health counselors and therapists and all service providers who work with older adults. 

King County Prosecution Office Senior Deputy Attorney states that “an evaluation of a potential victim’s capacity by a qualified evaluator is essential to making ethical charging decisions in elder abuse cases, yet, prosecutors throughout the country often lack access to evaluators who can conduct these evaluations correctly.” This dearth of correctly trained professionals heightens the risk of exploitation of older adults.

Our Decisional Capacity Assessment Professional Training 4-day training (one day per month for 4 months) that will prepare you to conduct decisional capacity assessments correctly, with confidence and following best practices. Taught by Karin Taifour, MA, LMHC, GMHS, one of Washington State’s few decisional capacity assessment experts, participants will be prepared to provide capacity assessments in a number of contexts. Because there are so few who are trained in this field in the U.S, the possibilities for new career paths are broad and applicable to many professions.

This program is aimed at master’s-level clinicians and above, but all service providers are welcome. Participants must attend all four sessions to receive a certificate of completion as well as guidance and support in their work on decisional capacity assessments. 
In this 4 part program you will learn:

• To professionally and correctly assess decisional capacity in older adults and others

• To know when a decisional capacity assessment is necessary and appropriate

• To attend to diverse social and cultural issues when assessing decisional capacity

• To recognize different neurocognitive and mental health disorders and how they impact decision making.

• About guardianship and less restrictive alternatives such as POA or supported decision making

• To know which tools and tests to appropriately use in various situations.

• How to explain assessment and testing processes and findings to clients and their families

• How to correctly document assessments with proper language for psychological, legal, and judicial perspectives

• This program prepares you for a possible new career track!

For More Information Visit https://soundgenerations.org/eldereducationinstitute/