Cohousing-L Mailing List: Cohousing and chronic illness

[Bob Morrison (morrison]

  On 12-Oct-95, Judith Wisdom wrote about cohousing and chronic illness.
  Thank you for writing this. This is something we need to talk about.
  I don't have a major chronic illness myself, but I have second-hand experi-
ence with it, and it can be very limiting. I also attended a workshop on
chronic illness last spring, held by the local adult education program, and it
was eye-opening.
  A common misconception is that accommodating people with mobility handicaps
is all you need to do to accommodate people with disabilities. This is not so.
I think a good starting point for coho groups is, if anyone can spare the
time, to attend a local workshop on chronic illness, or ask their adult edu-
cation program, hospital, or other agency to run such a workshop if none is
being held. This would give a good understanding of the many kinds of chronic
illness that exist and the issues these people face.
  People with chronic illness do, in fact, need cohousing more than the
general population does. This is because, as Judith says, they often have
trouble getting around (by foot, car, or any other means) and therefore need
a circle of friends nearby (that is, within 1/4 mile or less), both for 
social support and to help with tasks. But chronic illness also prevents
people from putting in the huge amounts of time and energy that are usually
asked of people who join cohousing groups. And this is the dilemma. How can
cohousing groups arrange things so that people who are physically unable to
put in this time and energy can still be members, not only after the cohousing
is built but also during the formative stage? The further dilemma is to do
so without drawing undue attention to the disabled members and while en-
suring that those who are physically able DO do their share.
  I agree that building special coho communities for people with chronic
illnesses is not the answer. These people need to have healthy people in
the community (and not just health care professionals) to have a balanced
circle of friends. In the 15 months I have been reading this list, there
has been very little mention of building cohousing "ghettos" for people with
chronic illnesses, so I think very few of them will be built. This brings
us back to the issue I started with, that we need to find a way to accommo-
date these people (in ALL senses of the word "accommodate") in "regular"
cohousing.

Bob Morrison

Home: Boxboro, MA               Work: Digital Equipment Corp., Littleton, MA