Harry Stern Family Center
for Innovations in Alzheimer's Care

     Harry Stern Family Center is a research and educational resource center supported by funding from a variety of sources including grants from government and foundations, Polisher Research Institute at the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, and a generous endowment from the Harry Stern Family.

Mission of the Center

      The Stern Center's mission is to develop programs, training materials, and consultation services designed to improve the behavioral, social, and emotional lives of persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the persons who care for them. While other biologically-focused research centers focus on the search for a cure for this devastating illness, the Stern Center is dedicated to the psychosocial care of those millions of individuals who live with the disorder and have little hope of an immediate cure.

Aims of the Center

1. Educational Resource Development

• To develop training manuals and video resources for use in training professional and family caregivers.

• To make available new assessment instruments to aid in clinical care.

2. Education & Training

• To offer educational consultation for staff development and total quality management both at the Abramson Center for Jewish Life and at other long-term care agencies

• To offer pre- and postdoctoral training opportunities for developing clinical researchers.

A video is available to show caregivers how to read emotions of Alzheimer's sufferers.

3. Research & Program Evaluation

• To obtain external funding to develop and evaluate the efficacy of psychosocial interventions in a variety of residential care settings.

• To develop and refine state-of-the-art research methods.

• To develop an evaluation process to assess the outcomes of intervention & education programs.

Staff of the Center

Director: Kimberly Van Haitsma, Ph.D.