Mary Mittelman

Mary S. Mittelman is research professor of Psychiatry and Rehabilitative Medicine at NYU School of Medicine and the director of the NYU Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Family Support Program, which was launched in 2016 with funding from New York State to provide comprehensive services to family caregivers of people with dementia. Trained in psychiatric epidemiology, she has been developing and evaluating psychosocial interventions for people with cognitive impairment and their family members for three decades. Dr. Mittelman was Principal Investigator of a randomized controlled trial of the NYU Caregiver Intervention (NYUCI), funded for 20 years by the National Institutes of Health, the results of which have been published widely. The study demonstrated that the NYUCI, a program that includes individual and family counseling, can improve the well-being of family caregivers and thereby help them to postpone nursing home placement of their relatives with dementia. Since then, Dr. Mittelman has made every effort to disseminate research findings to both health care providers and the community at large and to collaborate with organizations wishing to implement evidence-based psychosocial interventions in community settings. She has collaborated with organizations funded by the Administration on Aging and the Rosalynn Carter Institute, providing assistance for community translations of the NYU Caregiver Intervention in Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, California, Wisconsin, Utah, Vermont and Virginia and Medicaid Managed Care in New York. Studies of the NYUCI have been conducted in the United States, England, Australia, France and Israel. She is currently working with investigators in the African-American and Hispanic communities on studies of the NYUCI. A model of the potential cost savings associated with the NYUCI led directly to funding of caregiver support programs throughout New York State, including the one directed by Dr. Mittelman at NYU. In the past few years, Dr. Mittelman has expanded her research focus to interventions that include the person with dementia with the caregiver. She conducted an evaluation of the Meet Me at MoMA program, and is the founder of The Unforgettables, a chorus for people with dementia with their family members which rehearses and gives regular concerts in New York City.