Maria M. Meyer, Mary S. Mittelman, Cynthia Epstein, and Paula Derr, Contributing writers
Maria M. Meyer has been a longtime advocate of social causes, beginning with her work as cofounder of the Society for Abused Children of the Children's Home Society of Florida and founding executive director of the Children's Foundation of Greater Miami. When her father-in-law suffered a stroke in 1993, Meyer became aware of the need for better information about how to care for an aging parent, a responsibility shared by millions of Americans. That experience led her to found CareTrust Publications and to coauthor the award-winning guide The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers , now in its third edition. This book earned the Benjamin Franklin Award in the health category. Meyer is a keynote speaker and workshop leader on caregiver topics to healthcare professionals and community groups, as well as a Caregiver Community Action Network volunteer for the National Family Caregiver Association.
Mary S. Mittelman is an epidemiologist who has been evaluating psychosocial interventions for family members of people with Alzheimer's disease for the past two decades. She is director of the Psychosocial Research and Support Program at the Silberstein Institute, a research professor in the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, and leader of the Education and Psychosocial Cores of the NYU Alzheimer's Disease Center. She is principal investigator of the NYU-Spouse Caregiver Intervention study, funded by the NIH since 1987, as well as other studies of psychosocial interventions for people with cognitive impairment and/or dementia, and their family members. In the past few years, Mittelman has made a commitment to disseminate research findings to both healthcare providers and the community at large and to collaborate with researchers and community organizations to implement and test psychosocial interventions.
Cynthia Epstein , a social worker and clinical investigator, is a graduate of the Hunter/Mt. Sinai Geriatric Education Center and the Brookdale post-master's program on aging. For more than ten years, she has counseled family caregivers and people with Alzheimer's disease who seek cognitive evaluations and participate in psychosocial interventions at the NYU Aging and Dementia Research Center. In addition to providing clinical supervision to social work students, many of whom are now Alzheimer's care providers themselves, Epstein offers workshops for professional and family caregivers under the auspices of the New York City Alzheimer's Association. In her private psychotherapy practice, she works with people coping with Alzheimer's-related issues as well as a range of other emotional concerns.