Wendy Lustbader, M.S.W., has considerable experience working with older people, their families and caregivers. A medical social worker who specialized for almost twenty years in out-patient mental health at the Pike Market Medical Clinic in Seattle, she has also practiced in a home health care agency, hospital geriatric unit and nursing home. She is currently Affiliate Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work and lectures nationally on subjects related to aging. Wendy’s first book was co-authored with Nancy Hooyman, Taking Care of Aging Family Members. This is a practical guide to caregiving which is still considered the best book of its kind by experts in the field of aging. Her second book, Counting on Kindness, helps readers to comprehend the complex and often unspeakable feelings which arise when we become dependent on others for help. It is often used in the training of social workers, nurses, and physicians, and is regarded as a classic for health care providers. Her third book, What’s Worth Knowing, is a collection of pithy insights gathered from older people that has been used by ministers in sermons and managers wishing to liven up staff meetings. Her latest book, Life Gets Better: The Unexpected Pleasures of Growing Older, opposes the stereotype of aging as dimishment.

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