Overview
Dementia-informed end-of-life care, not just dementia care
Dementia often means years of decline, and the care falls to families and the professionals beside them.
There is no treatment that cures or reverses dementia, and the usual approach to dying does not account for lost language, fading memory, and behavior that is hard to read. Families go without answers, and skilled professionals are left improvising.
It does not have to be that way. This dementia care training gives you the skills to read the signals, ease distress, and support families through a loss that starts long before the death.
Most dementia training covers:
- Safety
- Activities of daily living
- Behavior management
- Caregiving techniques
This certificate covers:
- Personhood
- Communication
- Grief
- Meaning
- Relational care
- End-of-life support
This helps you build specialized knowledge in the relational, emotional, and end-of-life dimensions of dementia care.
What You’ll Learn
Walk in prepared
Over four weeks, you build a practical, evidence-informed foundation for supporting the person, not just the diagnosis, as they and their families move through the dying process. By the end, you will be able to:
- Describe the progression and distinguishing features of major neurocognitive disorders and what they mean for end-of-life care
- Apply dementia-informed communication strategies that support connection, orientation, and emotional safety
- Identify and respond to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia using person-centered approaches
- Distinguish anticipatory grief, ambiguous loss, cumulative loss, and disenfranchised grief in dementia caregiving
- Integrate dignity-conserving practices and recognize ethical questions around capacity and decision-making
- Support caregivers through anticipatory and cumulative loss with grief-informed education, emotional support, and resource navigation
- Apply cultural humility when honoring diverse identities, beliefs, and traditions in end-of-life care
A Dementia-Informed Approach
Dementia is not only a cognitive condition. It is also a grief experience, for the person living with it, the family who loves them, and the professionals who walk alongside them.
Dementia-informed care recognizes that dying with dementia is a distinct clinical and human experience, one that calls for its own communication frameworks, care practices, and emotional attunement. It is not a supplementary module. It is the curriculum.
The program draws on an interdisciplinary perspective, integrating dementia care with serious illness, grief, caregiving, trauma-informed practice, hospice, and end-of-life care. It is taught by an instructor who brings this expertise: a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying, and Bereavement.
UVM offers the End-of-Life Dementia Care Certificate 3 times per year.
| Session | Course Dates | Registration Deadline | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | 10/26/26 – 11/22/26 | 10/19/26 | Open |
| Spring | 4/12/27 – 5/9/27 | 4/5/27 | Pending |
| Summer | 7/26/27 – 8/22/27 | 7/19/27 | Pending |
Join a Trusted Leader in End-of-Life Education
- 5,000+ professionals trained in end-of-life care by UVM
- UVM created the first end-of-life doula program influenced by a medical school.
Earn stackable credentials with UVM PACE
- End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate: foundational end-of-life care knowledge and practice.
- End-of-Life Dementia Care Professional Certificate: specialized dementia-informed practice for professionals supporting dying individuals with cognitive impairment.
Why UVM?
Built for working professionals
100% online and asynchronous, with optional live touchpoints and discussion boards for shared learning. Weekly deadlines to keep you on track.
Evidence-based approach
Built on person-centered, trauma-informed, and dignity-conserving care principles, alongside established palliative and grief frameworks.
Immediately applicable
Frameworks and practices you can use right away in homes, hospices, assisted living, and clinical settings.
A credential people trust
Earn a certificate from the University of Vermont upon completion.
Extensive Professional Network
UVM End-of-Life Dementia Care alumni are affiliated with the Osher Center for Integrative Health at UVM, opening doors to additional learning and networking opportunities.
Self-Care and Personal Growth
Our program goes beyond professional training. Graduates leave not only ready to care for others but with deeper self-awareness and tools for self-care in end-of-life work.
Admission
End-of-life dementia care training is a good fit if you:
- Work with people living with dementia who are in palliative care, hospice, assisted living, home health, or clinical settings
- Are a nurse, NP, social worker, counselor, chaplain, CNA, home health aide, OT, or PT who wants dementia-specific end-of-life skills
- Are an end-of-life doula looking to deepen your practice with clients who have cognitive impairment
- Are a family caregiver or community partner supporting someone through dementia and the end of life including the burden, role changes, and hard decisions that come with it
No clinical license is required. This certificate is designed for professionals across the care team and for the caregivers and care partners providing support alongside them.
Dementia in the U.S.
-
More than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, projected to reach nearly 13 million by 2050.
1 in 3 older adults dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. -
Nearly 13 million Americans provide unpaid care for people living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias.
Source: Alzheimer’s Association 2025–2026 Facts and Figures
Curriculum
The dementia care training is fully online and includes:
- Self-paced modules with multimedia lessons. No scheduled class times. You move through each module with the cohort, with assignments due at regular intervals.
- Reflective writing and applied activities to help participants better understand and build upon their skills and abilities. Discussion boards for shared learning and integration.
- Optional live instructor touchpoint opportunities.
FAQ
Dementia changes memory and communication, but it does not erase personhood. Dementia-informed care recognizes that people living with dementia have unique experiences of illness, caregiving, and end of life that require approaches beyond those used for many other serious illnesses.
It requires understanding how dementia progresses, how to recognize behavioral and emotional expressions when verbal communication changes, how to communicate in ways that support connection and emotional safety, and how to honor each person’s dignity throughout the course of illness.
It goes beyond symptom management to support the whole person and the constellation of care through the relational, emotional, and end-of-life dimensions of dementia.
While many dementia care trainings emphasize daily care tasks and safety, this program explores the human experience of dementia. Through a person-centered, dementia-informed approach, learners examine communication, grief, caregiving, personhood, cultural humility, and end-of-life care while developing practical skills to support people living with dementia, their families, and the constellation of care with compassion and confidence.
No. This is a noncredit professional certificate from UVM PACE. It does not confer clinical licensure or replace existing professional credentials. The program is designed to deepen specialized knowledge within an existing scope of practice and to support interdisciplinary care team members at all levels.
This program is designed for hospice and palliative care professionals, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers, counselors, chaplains, certified nursing assistants, end-of-life doulas, and home health aides. It requires no prerequisites and is accessible to community members and family caregivers as well as professionals. Family caregivers and community members with an interest in dementia-informed end-of-life care are also welcome.
Yes. This program is a natural complement to UVM’s End-of-Life Doula Professional Certificate and is explicitly designed as a deepening option for doula graduates who want to build specialized competency in dementia-informed care. The two programs form a stackable credential pathway within UVM PACE’s growing suite of end-of-life care education.
No. The course is fully online and asynchronous, but it is broken down into 4 modules that will be worked through together week by week as a class. You are welcome to read ahead, but there will be assignments and discussions (including responsive discussions) that will open week by week. Each module is designed to build upon what was learned in previous modules.
Yes, students will need to purchase Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia: A Guide for Hospice Clinicians edited by Kenneth J. Doka and Amy S. Tucci.
If a student needs to cancel their attendance, they must do so at least 10 business days prior to the start date of the course to receive a 75% refund. No refunds will be issued for cancellations made after this 10-business day deadline. Student cancellation requests can be initiated through the Modern Campus LLEE student portal.
Weekly office hours will be made available by your instructor. Weekly optional office hours provide opportunities to ask questions and connect with the instructor.
There will also be two optional live educational sessions offered during the course for further learning. These will be recorded for those unable to attend.
Dates for Fall 2026 live sessions are below. Please note all dates are tentative and subject to change:
-
Wednesday, November 4th, 7:30pm – 8:30pm ET
-
Wednesday, November 11th, 7:30pm – 8:30pm ET
This program provides education and practical knowledge to strengthen your current role or prepare you for volunteer or professional work supporting people living with dementia and their families. It is not a clinical license or certification but complements existing professional training while also benefiting family caregivers and community members.
Yes, this program is eligible for 4.5 UVM PACE Continuing Education Units (CEUs). These CEUs are automatically awarded to students who successfully complete the program. CEUs are listed on the downloadable certificate you can access through your Modern Campus LLEE student portal.
Many professional organizations, licensing boards, or certifying bodies accept CEUs from accredited providers like the University of Vermont, but acceptance is not automatic and varies by organization. Professionals should always verify in advance with their specific regulating body or association whether the CEUs from the particular UVM course you are taking will count toward their requirements.
To request recognition of UVM PACE CEUs with your professional organization:
-
- Download or request an official certificate or verification letter for the completed course/program.
-
- Submit the official UVM documentation directly to your professional organization, licensing board, or certifying body through their required process (often an online portal, application form, or mailed packet).
-
- Include any additional materials they may require, such as course descriptions, agendas, or learning objectives (available on the program webpage or by request to PACE).
If your organization requires specific formatting or additional verification, contact UVM PACE at learn@uvm.edu or (802) 656-2085, and we will be happy to assist with documentation. Early confirmation with your professional body is recommended to avoid any delays in CEU approval.
If you are a non-credit student seeking accessibility support, please email access@uvm.edu and the UVM Student Accessibility Services team will be able to assist. In your email, please include that you do not have a 95 number/NetID.
- Have questions about taking an online or distance education course? Visit the Online and Distance Education FAQ page
- Have more basic questions about Professional and Continuing Education? Visit our About Us and FAQs pages.
The End-of-Life Dementia Care Certificate course is 4 weeks long. There are 4 modules, each spanning one week. Each module starts on Mondays at 9:00 AM and ends on Sundays at 11:59 PM. To better accommodate students’ work and life schedules, we provide early access to each module on the Friday before the module starts. You will continue to have access to the course for six months after the last day of the course.
For most modules, you will be expected to post to the discussion boards by Friday and/or Sunday and to complete a quiz by Sunday. Any module assignments will also be due on Sunday.
We estimate that you will dedicate 7 to 10 hours per week on course work, which includes readings, videos, and related activities (e.g., discussions, assignments, and quizzes).
The course is delivered through UVM’s online learning platform called Brightspace.
It’s important to note that Brightspace will only work with a desktop or laptop computer. It is not designed to be used with phones or tablets (e.g., iPads), so please make sure you have access to a desktop and/or laptop computer for the duration of the class.
Our Advisors are here to help. Please call us at 802-656-2085 or submit the inquiry form available on this site.
Advising and Student Support
You have the goal; we’ll help you achieve it
We are dedicated to helping you access UVM. It is our role to get to know your experience and goals, assist you in choosing courses, guide you through registration, and serve as your resource throughout your time at UVM.
Curious if your past college credits apply at UVM? Want to understand where a program will take you after completion? Looking for resources for financial aid, tutors, or UVM policies? We’re here to help.
Ready to get started?
Request Information
Submit this form to receive additional program information.