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Board of Directors
Board Nominations
One Board Member's Story of Depression
Board Members Discuss
Challenges and Solutions in Late-Life Mental Health Care
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Sanjay Gupta, MD (Chair)
Dr. Gupta is a Clinical Professor with the University of Buffalo,
Department of Psychiatry and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry
at Olean General Hospital in New York. Both a practitioner and
researcher, Dr. Gupta’s current projects include the study
of older adults with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in residential
care and weight gain and metabolic disturbances in patients
with severe and persistent psychiatric illness. |
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Frederic C. Blow, PhD (Vice-Chair)
Dr. Blow is the Director of the National VA Serious Mental Illness
Treatment Research and Evaluation Center (SMITREC) at the Department
of Veterans Affairs and an Associate Professor and Senior Associate
Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University
of Michigan. His research interests include serious mental illness,
alcohol abuse, older adults, and mental health services research. |
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Maria D. Llorente, MD (Secretary/Treasurer)
Dr. Llorente is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami
School of Medicine, in the division of geriatric psychiatry.
She is also the chief of psychiatry for the Miami VA Healthcare
System. Her primary research interests are in the area of improving
mental health services delivery to the geriatric population,
particulary ethnic and racial minority older adults, in both
long-term and primary care settings. |
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C. Nelson Berigtold, MSW
Mr. Berigtold, of White Hall, Maryland, brings to the GMHF Board
personal knowledge of the impact of depression and a wealth
of experience gained from more than forty years of various roles
in social services, including consultation, evaluation, training,
mentoring, volunteer recruitment, and management. Retired from
full-time work, Mr. Berigtold enjoys various part-time and volunteer
activities. For much of his career, Mr. Berigtold was with Big
Brothers Big Sisters, a youth mentoring organization with agencies
across the country. |
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Richard C. Birkel, PhD
Dr. Birkel, a longtime advocate for the mentally ill, is the
Executive Director of the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving
and the John and Betty Pope Distinguished Chair in Caregiving
at Georgia Southwestern State University. Previously, he
served as the executive director of the National Alliance
for the Mentally Ill and the Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Institute,
a social agency for people with developmental disabilities. |
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Martha L. Bruce Interview
Dr. Bruce is a Professor of Sociology in Psychiatry at Weill
Medical College of Cornell University, whose current research
focuses on psychosocial risks factors and outcomes of depression
in later life, and the relationship between depression and functional
disability. Her work on suicidal ideation and depressive symptoms
on older primary care patients was published in the March 3,
2004, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. |
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Christopher C. Colenda, MD, MPH
Dr. Colenda, a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is the dean of the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. Prior to that, he served as professor and chairman of the department of psychiatry at Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine. Dr. Colenda has published over 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, primarily in geriatric mental health services research. |
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Michael B. Friedman, LMSW
Michael Friedman is the chairman of the Geriatric Mental Health
Alliance of New York, and has over thirty-five years experience
as a mental health clinician, advocate, administrator, and policy
maker in New York City and the Hudson Valley. He has served
as Director of Network Development, New York Hospital; Regional
Director (Deputy Commissioner), NYS Office of Mental Health;
Executive Director MHA of Westchester; and Director of Operations
of The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services. He has
also served on numerous advocacy and advisory groups, including
The Mental Health Action Network, The Children's Justice Taskforce,
the NAMIs (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) of New York
City and of Westchester, The Coalition of Voluntary Mental Health
Agencies and The Greater New York Hospital Association. |
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Robyn L. Golden, MA, ACSW, LCSW
Ms. Golden is the incoming chair of the Board of Directors of
the American Society on Aging and the Director of Older Adult
Programs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She was
a Heinz Legislative Fellow in the office of Sen. Hillary Rodham
Clinton (D-New York) from September 2003 to September 2004. |
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Gary J. Kennedy, MD
Dr. Kennedy, a past president of the American Association for
Geriatric Psychiatry, is a geriatric psychiatrist with the Montefiore
Medical Center in New York, and specializes in Alzheimer’s
disease and other dementias, depression, psychopharmacology,
and psychosomatic medicine. |
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Melinda Lantz, MD
Dr. Lantz, MD, is the chief of geriatric psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, NY, an associate professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Fellowship Program at Beth Israel Medical Center. She has published many articles related to dementia, depression, psychiatry in the nursing home, and the treatment of agitation. Dr. Lantz is active in teaching medical students, residents and fellows and has a special interest in behavioral interventions for dementia care. |
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Burton V. Reifler, MD, MPH
Dr. Reifler is a geriatric psychiatrist and a Professor of Psychiatry
at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. His areas of expertise include the diagnosis
and management of Alzheimer's disease, the relationship between
Alzheimer's disease and depression, caregiving, and the development
of adult day centers. |
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Charles F. Reynolds, III, MD
Dr. Reynolds, president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) endowed professor of geriatric psychiatry and professor of behavioral and community health science at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, respectively. He directs the NIMH-sponsored Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research and the John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence in Geriatric Psychiatry. His research focuses on the late-life depression and ways to improve mental health services delivery for older disadvantaged (often minority) adults living with mood disorders. |
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