John Andrew Wanat, a resident of the Westfield Center nursing home, has published a book to help prospective residents of nursing homes and their families learn what to expect in a nursing facility. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – A resident of a city nursing home has published a book, “Nursing Homes: The Real Deal” to help persons, and their loved ones, who may be considering a move to a nursing home.
John Andrew Wanat, 65, currently lives in the Westfield Center, a Genesis Health Care facility in the city. He suffers from muscular dystrophy and has lived in nursing homes for 11 years.
In a recent interview, Wanat said that his work is “a self help book” intended to help potential nursing home residents, and their families, learn what to expect in a nursing home.
“I don’t want this to be a complaint book, filled with horror stories”, he writes, and states that his intent is to create a “guidebook” for persons “contemplating entering a nursing home, or thinking of admitting one of their relatives to a nursing home.”
Despite popular perception, he says, “it’s not the worst thing that can happen” he said.
Life in a nursing home is never boring, he said, and writes that in a nursing home, “each day is full of strange and interesting occurrences.”
“Every morning, I seem to get inundated with things to do. People to visit, medicines to take and personal hygiene chores,” he writes and goes on to say, “If you keep busy in a nursing home setting, your whole attitude towards your stay will improve greatly.”
Nursing Homes, The Real Deal, has been published by John Wanat, a resident of one of the city’s nursing homes, The Westfield Center.
Wanat said that he keeps busy with hobbies and is interested in computers, reading, writing, stamp collecting and karaoke.
He says the care he has received has always been pretty good and the food’s not bad.
He is very positive throughout his book and encourages his readers to make the most of their time in a nursing home.
In the book’s 38 chapters Wanat offers tips and upbeat advice on a wide range of subjects ranging from wheel chair collisions and keeping track of personal items, to the importance of a power of attorney.
While Wanat accentuates the positive aspects of life in a nursing home, he does recognize some of the drawbacks, too.
He devotes a chapter to the smells of a nursing home (a can of air freshener is a useful accessory) and he acknowledges that laundry can be problematic.
He recommends inscribing every piece of clothing with the owner’s name but says mistakes still happen.
“Prepare yourself for a little confusion regarding your clothes” he writes. He relates that, on one occasion, “The laundry put a blue poke-a-dot dress in my closet. It wasn’t even my size.”
Wanat is a native of Springfield’s ‘Hungry Hill’ neighborhood. The eldest of four children, both his parents served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
He initially worked for Goodwill Industries after high school and subsequently worked in the marketing department of area radio stations WHYN and WAQY.
Politically active for a time in Springfield, he ran unsuccessfully for the city council there in 1977 and 2004 he said.
Wanat moved to the Westfield Center, a Genesis Health Care facility, after living for several years in a nursing home in the Worcester area where he kept a diary.
In Westfield, Wanat decided to expand his diary into a book to help people learn what to expect of a nursing home.
Wanat said he wrote the book on his iPad and found a publisher to print it for a $750 fee.
He says the book is now available in 2,500 book stores across the country, including such national outlets as amazon.com and Barnes and Noble, both as a paperback book and, at a lesser cost, in a downloadable version.
The book was published in July and Wanat says that he has not yet seen any sales figures but will find out how it is selling when he learns how much royalty money is sent to the Muscular Dystrophy Association for research into the disease he has suffered from all his life.
He explained that, as a publicly supported nursing home resident, he is not allowed to have any significant income so he has donated all royalty income to the charity.
“I didn’t really want to make money,” he said. “I just want to get my message out and I’ve accomplished my goal.”
