Funeral professionals are professionally and morally bound to conduct every arrangement conference by offering quality services, outstanding products, and undeniable expertise in the field of funeral service. Underscoring each of these efforts is the director's intention to serve each client and every family fairly and ethically.

The purpose of this course is to offer specific guidelines and styles for working and communicating ethically seniors. The course examines fundamental issues of personal values, beliefs, and intentions regarding one’s professional life; identifies the developmental tasks of aging, and discusses the importance of relationship marketing to seniors.

Upon conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

• recognize why it is important to communicate effectively and ethically with all clients
• assess whether your behavior toward senior clients is ethical or not
  
• understand the five verbal behaviors used by seniors—lack of urgency, nonlinear conversations, repetition, attention to details, and uncoupling—and the communication strategies that can be used to address them
• identify why relationships are important to seniors and the key components to building better relationships
• recognize the various changes that occur in the brain as individuals age
• understand four strategies—age denial, age adaptation, age irrelevance, and age affirmation—that individuals adopt to cope with aging