Curriculum in Mobility Transition Counseling (MTC)
What is MTC?
Mobility Transition Counseling is a collaborative, professional intervention that strives to facilitate and implement a planned transition for optimal mobility.
How is it offered?
MTC works best when integrated into a comprehensive assessment and intervention process to assist older adults and their families to remain mobile, engaged and productive in advancing age.
Who may be trained to implement MTC principles?
The authors believe that any professional involved in referral, case management, supportive care and clinical intervention services for older adults may utilize MTC principles and the ARMT tool. Workers with an Area Agency on Aging (AAA) are an ideal target audience for this training. AAA staff are trained to look at the whole person, consider strengths and limitations, and develop referral and intervention strategies that enhance personal function and well-being. This is true, of course, of professional staff at many senior service organizations in the US and elsewhere.
What does training in the MTC Curriculum entail?
The developers, Drs. Meuser and Berg-Weger, recommend that most prospective trainees start by learning about the ARMT tool first. Click on the ARMT link in the main menu and work through the background, administration, scoring and interpretation segments. Be sure to view the training videos and review the printed manual. You will learn how the ARMT tool can enhance your practice with older adults facing the prospect of a mobility transition, such as retirement from driving.
Once you are comfortable with the ARMT tool, you may consider working through the full MTC Curriculum. You'll be asked to register, and then links will guide you through a series of modules and short quizzes. The ARMT tool is part of the MTC process, and you'll have opportunities to learn much more about the ARMT and its use in clinical and supportive care settings. You will also learn about the aging and mobility transitions, common attitudes of older adults, and specific principles for working with older adults and their families to promote understanding and proactive decision-making.
The Curriculum focuses, especially, on the transition from driving to non-driving mobility, as this transition worries many elders and their families. The total training takes ~5 hours, but you can divide this over many sittings. Just bookmark your last page. The final module gives you an opportunity to view a challenging MTC intervention from start to finish. You may then take the MTC Test and, if you pass, you will receive a training certificate by e-mail. Its that simple to become a trained MTC professional!
May, 2012: As of this time, the MTCI Curriculum is still a work in progress. The first three modules are available, but the final modules and test for certification are still in development. We hope to have this all ready by 8/12. Feel free to register and get started, however, as you will learn quite a bit from what's posted now. Contact Dr. Meuser if you have any questions or concerns.
Click here to register and start the training process.