Re: Let's Try That Again: Aging In Place In Cohousing
From: Craig Ragland (craigraglandgmail.com)
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:45:07 -0800 (PST)
>From Sharon:

To some extent it depends on the relationships the person has formed in the
community, the severity of the disability, and the willingness of the person
to be helped...

...In cohousing it doesn't take a "program" but responsiveness to
individuals.

>From Me:

I find myself reacting pretty strongly to your suggestion that a "program"
is inappropriate in this domain for cohousing and that just being
individually responsive is enough... I don't think that's enough for the
people I care about and suspect it won't be enough for me or my wife WHEN I
need support to age in place in our multigenerational community.

As I examine my own heart and feelings, I've come to accept that I do not
respond to some individuals appropriately without some form of programmatic
support. I accept that our common meals just work better with a number of
well-defined, carefully thought out roles that weave together to deliver
enough quality. I also believe that aspects of helping people  to more
gracefully Age-in-Place at Songaia also calls for quality programming work
on our part. Whether its transferable to other communities or whether its
unique to our local culture is an interesting question.

Like many cohousing communities, Songaia (13 units, 38 people, 11 acres near
Seattle) programmed the design of our physical environment to encourage
social cohension. Like many cohousing communities, we also think carefully
as we program aspects of our shared social environment, i.e., meetings,
circles, celebrations, etc.. The care conferences, I described on Mar 21, is
one programmatic way we have begun to address an Aging-in-Place question,
i.e. dealing with diability.

I often value putting flexible, human-centric systems in place when they
make it easier for me to do the right thing. Receiving group reinforcement
for behavior I value is helpful. Over my years of community living at
Songaia, I've formed very different qualities of relationship (I've lived
with these folks from one to 14 years now). When some have needs, I feel
lovingly called to provide care immediately. Perhaps I'm not evolved enough,
but I don't have this reaction to others... our program makes it easier for
me to share in ways that I feel good about, but might not offer without a
system that supports it.

One benefit of our Care Conference "program" is that encourages people to
explicitly address their needs, rather than encouraging silent stoicism. We
still have challenges here... but unlike our food program, Songaia's care
conference process is only a few years old and it will continue to evolve.

In Community, Craig

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