Author Description

"Aging in Wellness and Adversity" was written to describe the macrocosm that a day care center or hospital represents, but also as an educational tool which, hopefully, can assist in preparing young people for a future in the helping professions. If it is accepted as such (as well as being an enjoyable read), I'll feel I've contributed something useful based on my considerable experience and be fulfilled.... Leah Abramowitz With more than 40 years of experience as a geriatric social worker, Leah Abramowitz has created this book of short stories to describe common situations with which family members, nurses, doctors, and social workers face when caring for aging individuals. The issues with which professionals must deal are presented here in story form, but include the practical means to deal with them, like non-compliant patients, family strife regarding continuing care of a parent at home, the patient's welfare, at the expense of their caretaker, community responsibility for childless elderly, over-devoted offspring, cultural differences regarding expectations on aging, and many more topics. Families will gain valuable insights from the author's perspective on how to relate to the new realities of their aging loved ones. The various chapters could well be used for social work students or those in other professions to understand family dynamics and the trauma of illness in old age. Using examples from these stories, their teachers can point out how in each case an initial diagnosis of the problem is critical, the importance of conducting careful interviews is required, and how much they can learn by observation of outer appearances, body language, and emotional response. Above all, examples of developing creative intervention plans are illustrated. Sometimes luck or circumstances take matters out of our hands, but many useful professionally-based skills and suggestions are included in these seemingly simple tales.