Cohousing-L Mailing List: interdependency

[mrbouchez06 (mrbouchez06]

good morning,  all
 
i'm tossing in a thought that  the discussions on 
accessibility/affordability/et al have brought to  mind.
 
 
The question of accessibility  has been discussed here for several days and 
the issue that all of us will  likely be disabled at one point, many by simply 
the aging process itself.   The question of what do individuals value has also 
been "debated".  
Affordability vs accessibility/fiscal vs  physical.  It's one of those 
impossible to answer correctly word problems  where you have to choose who to 
throw 
overboard first  in an overly-crowded  life  raft.
 
What this makes me think about concerns  disability that is not physically 
visible but something that many of us are  already facing in families or will 
likely experience at some point and that also  begs an answer.  What do we do 
when the disability involved includes the  aging of the mind - 
alzheimer's/dementia /senility- if we have communities of  co-housing, this is 
likely an issue 
that will arise and doesn't get met by  elevators, ramps or other physical 
accommodation.   I'm not trying to  be provocative - I just am wondering about 
that because mental disability is a  reality as well.  How will we deal with 
that within our co-housing  units?

 
While some would call it simply  an "elder-housing" issue , if our co-housing 
is multi-generational, it is a  co-housing community issue.  It is a reality 
that is every bit as  possible as future physical disability for all. 
 
 I  believe a major  facet of co-housing is the issue of aging in place.  
People used to remain  more capable of staying within their community because 
they had the support of  family, friends and the community at large.  
Co-housing 
to me offers a  similar concept and promotes multi-generational "villages" and 
the like.   How will the communities that we are creating now deal with not 
only the  physical challenges that members currently or eventually may 
encounter, but the  mental challenges that will arise as well?
 
Food for thought.  If we  are going to discuss what we value and what kind of 
communities we wish to live  in, then we need to think beyond the ADA 
definitions and discuss  this.
 
tricia 
 
 



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