Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing and chronic illness

[Dan McEvers (dmcevers]

On Tue, 17 Oct 1995 13:06:34 -0500, fords [at] hookup.net wrote:
->I am a professional with a disability, (multiple sclerosis), and view 
->co-housing as a natural place for living independently but with a support 
->network.   Persons with disabilities or chronic illnesses are often 
->substantially independent but need that assurance that help is around if 
->needed. Aside from a few accomodations that are really just common courtesy 
->a disabled person will not require any more support than others in a 
->supportive, caring community.
->
->I am not in a co-housing community but considering it as a viable lifestyle.
->
->Any comments?

I think you hit a nail on its head.  Co-housing seems especially appropriate
for the disabled, the elderly, and the needy.  It seems to me a scientific
blend of interaction and solitude could easily be accomodated.

I read a piece by a French psychiatrist who dedicated his life to
promoting the notion of "milieu therapy", i.e., the use of one's
surroundings as a therapeutic tool.  It seems to me that if the
financial burden of establishing a cohousing community were not high
[accomplished by using appropriate technologies, sweat equity, rural
siting, etc.], investors, individuals, and groups would be far more
willing to experiment with the idea of "planned communities".  The
planning could revolve around any types of themes.  Theoretically many
such communities could arise and become veritable behavioral
laboratories ever improving and evolving into formulas which could be
easily cloned as affordable and appropriate to any type of individual, i.e,
"something for everybody."

I'd like to see the concept of cohousing take a more creative slant and
address the low income housing shortages around the world.  Habitat does
it, but Habitat is not for everyone.  Again, I'd like to see the creation
of a "Habitat for the rest of us,"  so that no one need be homeless.
The rest is sociology.

Thankyou for use of your soap box,
Dan.

---
dmcevers [at] poweramp.net    ==>     Dan McEvers in Spokane, WA.