Aging and Applied Thanatology

Degree Offered

Postbaccalaureate Certificate

Program Description

Aging and Applied Thanatology is a one-year, 12-credit, online postbaccalaureate certificate program. Students learn about the key issues, theories, research, and clinical practices related to aging, dying, death, and grieving. Students work with leaders in the field, studying topics such as psychosocial perspectives in aging, ethical and legal issues in death and dying, palliative care, and caring for the bereaved.

This program was designed with three guiding principles in mind: translating knowledge into action, taking a holistic and personal approach to learning, and making education available to all. These principles allow students to be better prepared to achieve success in the program while working in the thanatology field.

Three Guiding Principles

• Translating Knowledge into Action: We believe it is important that a student’s educational experience is relevant, applicable, and practical. As such, course material and experiences focus on skill-based learning and application, particularly in professional contexts.
• Taking a Holistic and Personal Approach to Learning: Our integrative and interdisciplinary stance is that the professional is an instrument, be that a healing instrument, an educational instrument, a service instrument, or otherwise. Our motto is to prepare the participant, not just their mind, to work effectively and compassionately in a chosen vocation. We believe that to effectively work with others who are dealing with dying, death, and grief, the professional needs to have addressed their own personal issues related to these areas. As such, courses include relevant self-awareness and self-reflection exercises to prepare the individual personally and professionally.
• Making Education Available to All: We believe the most effective way to ensure availability to all interested individuals is to use online delivery methods. This allows participants from across the nation, and even across the world, to participate in a flexible and convenient manner.

Certificate Objectives

Our goal is to provide our students with advanced knowledge and practical training to ensure that learning is relevant and applicable to each student’s professional goals. The program is designed to ensure students gain a greater sense of comfort and competence in addressing the sensitive and complex issues of aging, dying, death, and grieving.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this certificate, students will be able to do the following:

• Recognize common responses to aging, death, dying, and grief as experienced by adults and children.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to individual, developmental, and cultural variations in addressing and coping with aging, dying, death, and grief.
• Communicate effectively with those who are dying and grieving, as well as recognize barriers that can impede effective communication with these populations.
• Use patient-sensitive methods of palliative care based upon an interdisciplinary perspective.
• Describe and apply empirically based methods of therapeutic grief intervention.
• Analyze and evaluate legal and ethical principles and dilemmas regarding death, dying, and end-of-life choices.
• Work effectively as an interprofessional team member around issues related to aging, dying, and grief by developing and applying the competencies of interprofessional practices.
• Evaluate the societal, cultural, and religious/spiritual influences on responses to death and dying.
• Develop greater self-awareness of and coping skills for one’s own experiences of and attitudes toward aging, death, and grief.
• Apply this training for certification through the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).

Program Admission

Candidates for admission must meet the minimum standards of admission established by the Graduate School and provide the requisite credentials. Admission to the certificate program is selective. A U.S. bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from a non-U.S. educational institution is required. No specific undergraduate course of study is required or recommended. The Graduate Record Examination is not required for admission.

Degree Requirements

Certificate candidates must complete a minimum of 12 credits. Students must maintain a minimum, cumulative grade-point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. All courses must be taken for letter grade; courses taken as Pass/Fail (P/F) or Audit (AU) do not count toward the certificate. All requirements for the certificate must be completed within three years after admission and all credits for the certificate must be completed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Complete guideline and requirements for progression and completion are outlined in the Academic Performance and Progress in a Postbaccalaureate Certificate Program section of this catalog.

Required Courses

Completion of these four courses (3 credits each) is required to obtain a certificate in Aging and Applied Thanatology: