Crossing The Border Into Old Age: The Baby Boomer Challenge (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781468024159)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR- JULIA COLE KNEISSL. Born in New Zealand, Julia obtained a B.S.in Consumer Arts and Science. After graduation she served as an lecturer at the University of Otago. Relocating to Montreal, Canada then to Albany N.Y. USA, Julia obtained her Master's degree in Social Work at SUNY Albany. She accepted a position at Hudson Valley Community College as an assistant professor, subsequently becoming a full professor in the Human Services Department. This included teaching courses in gerontology and a fieldwork course. She saw the need for expanded training opportunities. Julia became keenly aware that textbooks were written from the perspective of younger people or scientists, (Ph.D. research papers were very common) Older authors wrote few, if any. She enrolled in a three year advanced course at the Family Institute in Westchester County. Three of the top family therapists, Betty Carter, Olga Silverstein and Peggy Papp gave Julia her first training in Women's Issues therapies and the importance of life experience which she applied in her work as a psychotherapist in private practice.. Other avenues for teaching gerontology opened up - Memorial Hospital School of Nursing, Albany Medical College in their series on Human Sexuality. How to become an open physician was the focus, as most at that time had no interest in people over sixty. Julia taught gerontology at Russell Sage College in Troy N.Y. as well as conducting workshops on retirement for companies looking at downsizing their employment base. She was awarded a sabbatical leave of one semester that returned her to study cases that involved older adults at the Family Institute of Westchester County. Julia taught for twenty- three years and felt fully prepared for her retirement. Mortgages were paid off teeth were fixed, the house was in good repair, the Florida dream for the winter was a reality. For three years everything looked just like the books said it was going to be. Then things changed. That is what her book is about. Julia has focused on problems in living topics, which finds it's strength in the fact that it is written from the hot seat of the author who has plenty of "tell it like it is" experience. Topics of interest in this book should appeal to Baby Boomers and their parents and grandparents.