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Richard Schulz, PhD Gerontology Research Program · Program Director School of Medicine · Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry · Professor of Epidemiology, Sociology, Psychology, Community Health, Nursing, and Health & Rehabilitation Sciences 3343 Forbes Ave Room 231 Pittsburgh, PA 15260 Phone:  412-624-5443 Email:  schulz@pitt.edu

Biography

Richard Schulz is Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Gerontology, and Associate Director of the Aging Institute of UPMC Senior Services and the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his PhD in social psychology from Duke University.

Dr. Schulz has spent most of his career doing research and writing on adult development and aging. His work has focused on social-psychological aspects of aging, including the impact of disabling late life disease on patients and their families. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than three decades to conduct descriptive longitudinal and intervention research on diverse older populations representing illnesses such as cancer, spinal cord injury, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and arthritis.

He has been a leading contributor to the literature on the health effects of caregiving, Alzheimer’s disease caregiving, and intervention studies for caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease. This body of work is reflected in more than 300 publications, which have appeared in major medical, psychology, and aging journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Archives of Internal Medicine. He is also the author of numerous books including the Handbook of Alzheimer’s Caregiver Intervention Research and the Quality of Life Technology Handbook.

In the last decade, Dr. Schulz has become interested in supportive interventions, including technology-based approaches designed to enhance patient functioning and quality of life of both patients and their relatives.

Dr. Schulz is the recipient of several honors, including the Kleemeier Award for Research on Aging and the Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award from the Gerontological Society of America, and the M. Powell Lawton Distinguished Contribution Award for Applied Gerontology, the Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award, and the Developmental Health Award for Research on Health in Later Life from the American Psychological Association. In 2014, he was appointed by The National Academies of Sciences · Engineering · Medicine to Chair the Committee on Family Caregiving for Older Adults.

Selected Publications

Books

• Schulz, R. & Eden, J. (Eds.). (2016). Families Caring for an Aging America. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. (2016). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23606.

Refereed Journals

• Schulz, R., Beach, S.R., Czaja, S.J., Martire, L.M., Monin, J.K. (2020). Family caregiving for older adults. Annual Review of Psychology, 71, 635-659. PMID: 31905111. 376. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010419-050754.
• Schulz, R. (2019). Commentary on "Influence of positive and negative dimensions of dementia caregiving on caregiver well‐being and satisfaction with life: Findings from the IDEAL study". American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 27(8), 849-850. PMID: 30857857. doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2019.02.009 370.
• Schulz, R. (2019). The future of caregiver efficacy research: Commentary on "long-term outcomes of the benefit‐finding group intervention for Alzheimer caregivers." American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 27(9), 995-997. PMID: 31031074. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2019.04.001 371.
• Schulz, R., Beach, S.R., Friedman, E.M., Martsolf, G.R., Rodakowski, J., & James, A.E. (2018). Changing structures and processes to support family caregivers of seriously ill patients. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 21(S2), S36-42. PMID: 29091533. PMCID: PMC5756457. doi:10.1089/jpm.2017.0437 360.
• Schulz, R., & Czaja, S.J. (2018). Family caregiving: A vision for the future. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(3), 358-363. PMID: 28774786. doi:10.1016/j.jagp.2017.06.023. 361.
• Beach, S.R., & Schulz, R. (2017). Family caregiver factors associated with unmet needs for care among older adult care recipients. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 65(3), 560-566. PMID: 27935019. doi:10.1111/jgs.14547.
• Schulz, R. (2017). My life in research: From theory to policy in 40 years. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 25(4), 440-444. PMID: 28153575. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2016.12.011. 347.
• Schulz, R., Savla, J., Czaja, S.J., Monin, J. (2017). The role of compassion, suffering and intrusive thoughts in dementia caregiver depression. Aging and Mental Health, 21(9), 9971004. PMID: 27260874. PMCID: PMC5786267. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2016.1191057.
• Wolff, J.L., Feder, J., & Schulz, R. (2016). Supporting family caregivers of older Americans. New England Journal of Medicine, 375(26), 2513-2515. PMID: 28029922. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1612351.
• Schulz, R., Beach, S.R., Matthews, J.T., Courtney, K., De Vito Dabbs, A., & Person Mecca, L. (2016). Caregivers' willingness to pay for technologies to support caregiving. The Gerontologist, 56(5), 817-829. PMID: 26035899. PMCID: PMC5019044. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnv033.
• Schulz, R., Boerner, K., Klinger, J., & Rosen, J. (2015). Preparedness for death and adjustment to bereavement among caregivers of recently placed nursing home residents. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 18(2), 127-133. PMID: 25469737. PMCID: PMC4308821. doi: 10.1089/jpm.2014.0309.
• Schulz, R., Wahl, H., Matthews, J.T., De Vito Dabbs, A., Beach, S.R., & Czaja, S.J. (2015). Advancing the aging and technology agenda in gerontology. The Gerontologist, 55(5), 724-734. PMID: 25165042. PMCID: PMC4592332. doi:10.1093/geront/gnu071.