About UsDuke’s Aging Center Family Support Program established the first support groups in NC for families of adults with memory disorders in 1980 with Duke Hospital Auxiliary and NC Foundation grants. Now the original groups form two chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association offering support groups in almost all 100 counties. The Program’s newsletter, The Caregiver, has linked families and professionals caring for persons with memory disorders as the oldest continuously publishing family caregiver newsletter in the US. Since 1984, the Program has been funded by the NC Divisionof Aging as a NC one-stop clearinghouse, crisis hotline and technical assistance center for families and professionals caring for people with memory disorders. The state pays for free subscriptions to the newsletter (circulation 10,000 in 50 states and 9 countries) for any NC resident. Since 1985, Lisa Gwyther, Program Director, has directed education for the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) at Duke Medical Center. In 1999 Duke’s Family Support Program received the Outstanding Human Service Agency of the Year Award by the NC National Association of Social Workers. In 2000, the Program’s social workers were funded by Duke Human Resources to offer free confidential elder care consultations for Duke employees and their families. Program staff are currently engaged in a cutting-edge study of a home-based stress management program for adults caring for parents, husbands or wives with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. Contact program staff for more information on participation in caregiver studies. Duke Family Support Program Phone: (919) 660-7510 Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, LCSW, Director Bobbi G. Matchar, MSW, MHA, Program Specialist Cheryl Copeland, Program Coordinator |