Babette Becker, PhD, LCSW, BCD, C-ASWCM is one of the founding women of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (NAPGCM) that started in the l970s as a New York City based innovative organization to help families find care and services for their elder family members as they became increasingly more dependent, as well as to address the needs of the elderly themselves. The idea was to have a “one stop shop” where a professional would make assessments of the individual in question, the home environment, participating physicians, family members, other associated care givers, then to make recommendations and monitor all services and care. Caring for and about the elderly can be very stressful: long-standing family conflicts can resurface and new ones can arise. NAPGCM has since developed into a national organization serving families in all fifty-two states..

Her philosophy is to keep people in their homes and communities and to encourage as much independence and creative living as possible, and to promote and insure self-esteem, dignity in a protective and loving environment – physically, mentally, spiritually, creatively.

Dr. Becker has also developed and taught in gerontology degree and certificate programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels and at Adelphi University, New York University, College of New Rochelle, Marymount Manhattan College, BOCES, and has lectured and presented seminars at several conferences. She has published articles in Social Casework and the Gerontologist, the Applied Research Journal of the American Gerontological Society (GSA). She also received a post-doctoral fellowship from the GSA to study the elderly remaining in hospitals when they no longer needed acute care treatment.

Dr. Becker lives and works in New York City and is practicing psychotherapist, a writer and a photographer as well.