Four Staff Members Earn or Renew Certified Dementia Practitioner® Credential; 18 Team Members Now CDPs®

Four staff members from the elder law firm of Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak earned or renewed professional certification as as a Certified Dementia Practitioner® (CDP®) through the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners (NCCDP) at an all day training held in State College on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. This brings the total of SGY team members that have earned the CDP® designation to 18. A full list of those staff members that earned it yesterday and already have it is below. 

Attorney Jenna Franks, a partner of the firm, and Long-Term Planner Kristin Daugherty led the training, which was also attended by other area professionals that work in the long-term care field. Both Jenna and Kristin are Certified Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia Care Trainers®, which allows them to train others to become CDPs®. 

The CDP® designation represents individuals that have received comprehensive knowledge in the area of dementia care and achievement in completing the Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia Care course/seminar. The CDP® also commits to ongoing professional development through NCCDP Staff Education Week or other educational opportunities and re-certification every two years. The NCCDP remarks that the "CDP® certification reflects a deep personal commitment on the part of the front line staff, health care professional and the organization’s sense of accountability by abiding by the NCCDP ethics statement, inspiring confidence and dedication in an individual's professional knowledge through quality of life and quality of care provided by the CDP® to the dementia patient." The goal of the NCCDP is to develop and encourage comprehensive standards of excellence in direct-care skills, education, and sensitivity in the area of dementia care.

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Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak Welcomes Attorney Eric Young

Steinbacher, Goodall & Yurchak, an elder law firm with locations in State College, Williamsport, Wyalusing and Wysox, Pa., is pleased to announce the addition of Attorney Eric Young to its staff as an associate attorney. Attorney Young comes to SGY with over 18 years of experience as an attorney in Pennsylvania, having been admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 2004 and having worked in several different areas of law during his career. He will work primarily out of the firm's Williamsport and Wyalusing offices, taking client appointments in both locations, and will assist clients with their estate and long-term care planning needs.

Attorney Young most recently was an associate attorney with the RHP Law Group in Selinsgrove, Pa., where he worked from 2018-2022 and primarily with clients that required various types of estate and long-term care planning. Elder law-related items he worked on included but weren't limited to trusts, land preservation, inheritance tax appraisements and petitions to the Department of Revenue and guardianships. He also worked on non-elder law areas including business registration filings, operating agreements, corporate bylaws and trademark registration. He advised numerous clients on estate planning needs and designed multiple customized estate plans to reduce inheritance taxes and protect assets from the costs of long-term care. 

Prior to his time with RHP Law Group and shifting his law focus to elder law, Attorney Young spent parts of six years at the law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer Check, LLP in Radnor, Pa., serving first as a staff attorney and later as an investigator. His work supported active cases of securities fraud and securities and consumer class action litigation. Attorney Young spent time as a contract attorney for several different law firms in the Philadelphia area as well as a staff attorney at Dechert, LLP from 2005-2010, working primarily on business law litigation. 

A native of New York, Attorney Young is a 2004 magna cum laude graduate of New York Law School, where he was a member of the New York Law School Law Review. He earned his bachelor's degree in communication arts from Hofstra University.