COPE Program Creator and Founder of COPE2Thrive

View Dr. Melnyk's Biosketch

Meet Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, APRN-CNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN

For Bernadette Melnyk, the COPE Program is the realization of a lifelong dream to bring young people the type of help that was unavailable to her during her own difficult teenage years. When Bernadette was 15, her mother died suddenly in front of her. The Post-traumatic Stress (PTSD), anxiety and depression that followed lasted a couple of years and went untreated. At that time, and in rural Pennsylvania where Bern grew up, mental health disorders were not always recognized or talked about much.

Bern is a nationally/internationally recognized author, practitioner, researcher and expert in child and adolescent health, evidence-based practice and intervention research. She has over 460 publications, including a book entitled A Practical Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Screening, Early Intervention, and Health Promotion (3rd edition) (2022). New York, NY: Springer Publishing and NAPNAP.

For Bern, caring for others was the start of her recovery. She graduated from nursing school at West Virginia University, and started practicing in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. She holds a Master's Degree with a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP) specialty from the University of Pittsburgh, and completed her PhD and a post-master's certificate as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner at the University of Rochester.  Bern has extensive experience in integrating mental and physical healthcare and conducting workshops with health professionals on how to better screen for, identify, and provide evidence-based management for a variety of child and adolescent mental health disorders. She is a frequent invited keynote speaker at national and international conferences.

Bern's ultimate goal is to get COPE into the hands of every child, teen, and young adult who suffers from stress, depression, anxiety or other mental health disorders that keep them from living a happy, healthy, full life as well as to deliver the program to all youth in order to prevent mental health problems and enhance healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Bern was recently recognized as an Edge Runner by the American Academy of Nursing for her evidence-based programs that decrease depression/anxiety and improve healthy lifestyle behaviors in children, teens and young adults/college students.

Click here to view a Personal Program Overview from Dr. Melnyk