As sole caregiver for her mother for fifteen years, Melodee has became acutely aware of how difficult it is to get relevant credible advice, when you need it. Her soon-to-be published "Surviving and Thriving as a Caregiver", is a “plain English” handbook to help caregivers navigate the unfamiliar road to successful patient advocacy.

Melodee’s eclectic background has allowed her to work on a number of award-winner projects as a

• Writer
• Teacher
• Radio show host
• News reporter and anchor
• Television and video producer

As a federal employee, she learned to wind her way through bureaucracies from the inside and even translated bureaucratic red tape into plain English. So, after years of working as a team with her mother to navigate through medical bureaucracies, she decided to combine these skills to help other caregivers.

In Melodee’s words: “When you’re a long term caregiver, you create systems to make life normal and you tend to be more proactive. When you’re a short term caregiver, you don’t have the time to do anything but react and search for information. Caregiver’s Forum was inspired by my mother, Perri Mercer, who taught me that a big part of life is making things better for others. It was created to help make the search for information clearer and easier.”