Decision-Making Capacity Assessment Professional Training Program
Enhance Your Practice | Start a New Career | Ensure Your Clients’ Rights
A 24 Hour, CEU Granting, Professional Training Program for Professionals Who Work With Older Adults
Taught by Karin Taifour, MA, LMHC, GMHS
As we age or become compromised in some way, our abilities to make logical and healthy decisions about our lives may come into question. It may be helpful or even necessary to have a professional evaluation of decision making capacity so that we are safe and our civil rights are protected.
Trained professionals do a thorough assessment using various tools and tests to assess capacity for different types of decisions. Performed with skill, these assessments help assure that each person’s rights are protected and decision making capacity is supported.
Program Manager, Alison Laird Craig can be reached at alisonc@soundgenerations.org; 206-727-6226.
Spring 2027 Session Dates Below
“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.”
- Page Ulrey, King County Prosecution Office Senior Deputy Attorney
The Program
The Elder Education Institute at Sound Generations is excited to open registration for our Spring 2026 cohort of our Decision-Making 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 clinicians
- Physicians, physician assistants
- Nurses, nurse practitioners
- Occupational therapists
- Speech therapists/SLP
- Guardians and case managers
- Hospital care managers
- Skilled nursing/rehab staff
- And More
This program is aimed at master’s-level clinicians and above, but all service providers are welcome.
“A vital course in understanding the complexity of capacity assessments, filling a long held gap in mental health professional education.”
– Elaine Barber, Legal Council for the Elderly / AARP
Our Decision-Making Capacity Assessment Professional Training 4-day training that will prepare you to conduct decisional capacity assessments correctly, with confidence and following best practices. 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.
Upon completion (includes an exam) you will receive a certificate of completion but you will not be a “Certified Decision-Making Capacity Assessor.” No such professional designation exists, there is no formal board to regulate this field, nor formal licensure. You will be well trained to make these evaluations with skill and confidence.
Spring 2027 Program Dates:
- March 3rd, 8:30am – 4:30pm
- March 10th, 8:30am – 4:30pm
- March 17th, 8:30am – 4:30pm
- March 24th, 8:30am – 4:30pm
Participants must attend all four sessions to receive a certificate of completion as well as guidance and support in their work on decision-making capacity assessments.
In this 4-part program you will learn:
- To professionally and correctly assess decision-making capacity for various types of decisions
- 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 Power of Attorney (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 class was the missing piece that I did not get in my graduate-level social work education. This class has given me new tools, new perspectives on looking at decision-making capacity, and has contributed to my personal growth as a clinical social worker.”
- Jennifer Hurley- LICSW, Northwest Kidney Centers
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, provider #1975-517. The NASW WA CEUs may be applicable in other states. Please check with your local licensing board to find out if your state will accept these.
The WMHCA For Washington State Licensed Licensed Social Workers, Family & Marriage Therapists and Licensed Mental Health Counselors, provider #1712.
The National Academy of Certified Care Managers (NACCM) for Certified Aging Care Managers, provider #25-914EEISG.
This program will be taught over Zoom. Each session begins promptly at 8:30am, and includes short breaks and a lunch break. Information and Zoom link will be sent out 1 week beforehand. Please make sure to save the link.
COST – $1250 REGISTRATION IS OPEN – Early Bird Discount Code – DMCP2026-1 for $200 off
Please Note: For those of you with special payment arrangements or organizational group discounts, please contact Alison at alisonc@soundgenerations.org to register.
Taught by Karin Taifour, MA, LMHC, GMHS
The Elder Education Institute’s Decision-Making Capacity Assessment Professional Training Program is taught by Karin Taifour, MA, LMHC, GMHS, one of Washington State’s only experts in assessing decision making capacity.
Karin holds a master’s in Applied Behavioral Sciences from Bastyr University and a certificate in geriatric mental health from University of Washington. She has been a practicing clinician and consultant for over 20 years and in private practice since 2017. A qualified clinical supervisor, Karin also has taught graduate level courses and provided professional training and continuing education, as well as public/community presentations.
Karin has also written articles and presented at conferences and for organizations such as the Elder Abuse Council of Seattle and King County, the Washington State Bar Association, the King County Bar Association, the state guardianship certification program, the Washington State Elder Abuse Conference, and others.
Karin is recognized for her expertise and experience in assessing decision making capacity, cognitive functioning, and care needs. She has assessed over 1000 older adults in her career. Her assessments have been used in multiple criminal trials, guardianship proceedings, vulnerable adult protection order hearings, and administrative hearings.
As one of the few clinicians (if not the only one) offering decision making capacity assessments in the greater Seattle area, Karin is enthusiastically sharing this rich area of practice with other professionals. The demand for these assessments is growing exponentially, and she welcomes more clinicians to start working in this area for collaboration and mutual support.