Wendy Lustbader – författare

Seattle mental health counselor Lustbader here compells attention to and sympathy for those who must rely on caregivers for their needs. Stories are related by patients themselves. From incapacitated men and women we learn of the humiliations caused by the loss of autonomy, of the frustrations at not being able to manage on one's own. Accounts from widely different sorts of patients and those who begrudgingly or willingly see to their care provide graphic lessons in sensitivity.

Established in its first edition as the definitive guide for family members and professionals on all aspects of caring for the aged, this beautifully written and comprehensive handbook has been updated to include more issues of concern to the aged and those who care for them.Unlike other books on caring for the aged, Taking Care of Aging Family Members provides thorough and substantive advice and information on the complete range of psychological, social, and financial issues that face those caring for an older person. This expanded edition includes new sections on spiritual concerns, ethnicity, and self-neglect, as well as updated sections on conflict resolution in families, long-distance caregivers; coping with physical changes, and the woman-in-the-middle who cares for both children and parents.

Colorful and enlightening vignettes about life by everyday people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties.When social worker Wendy Lustbader was asked to take down the histories of residents in a retirement community, she discovered that "the man with Alzheimer''s in room 410" was actually ninety-six-year-old Ole Harlen, a former concert pianist. "The woman who people-watches in the lobby" was really Lila Lane, who eloped to Tijuana with her sweetheart at age sixteen, and who at age seventy-five bemoaned the fact that she could no longer wear high heels.Lustbader gathered these stories and more into What''s Worth Knowing, a compilation of unforgettable first-person testimonials on love, truth, grief, faith, and fulfillment by people in their seventies, eighties, and nineties. Israel Grosskoff, for example, describes learning about trust while hiding from the Nazis during World War II. Giuseppe Maestriami passes on child-rearing lessons he discovered through growing prize-winning tomatoes. And Arsene St. Amand talks about the importance of making time for love-which he found for the first time only six months before his death.In What''s Worth Knowing, readers can spend time with Ole, Lila, Israel, Giuseppe, and Arsene-and a hundred others, whose wisdom matters all the more because of the way they''ve acquired it.

Seattle mental health counselor Lustbader here compells attention to and sympathy for those who must rely on caregivers for their needs. Stories are related by patients themselves. From incapacitated men and women we learn of the humiliations caused by the loss of autonomy, of the frustrations at not being able to manage on one''s own. Accounts from widely different sorts of patients and those who begrudgingly or willingly see to their care provide graphic lessons in sensitivity.