Cohousing-L Mailing List: Aging in Place in Cohousing

[Annie Russell (annie]

Silver Sage Village is an age targeted community for proactive adults
that Wonderland Hill Development Company is building in Boulder
Colorado.  Of the 14 (out of 16) households already purchased, ages
range from 52-68.  We're actively engaged in discovering how to age in
community.  We plan to use a process similar to the Care Conference
described by Craig at Songaia.  We discovered a book called Share the
Care: How to Organize a Group to Care for Someone Who is Seriously Ill,
that we found very helpful.  It describes in detail how to create a
"caring circle" for someone.  By having a system like this it makes it
possible for either a community member, family member, or friend to be
the care coordinator, whoever is most appropriate.  And it doesn't limit
the helpers to just community members.

Another activity we did together was to discuss The Five Wishes.  The
Five Wishes is a document that allows people, in clear and simple
language, to spell out their wishes in the event of an illness, or
death.  Having discussions of this intimate topic has drawn us close
together, and has clarified our own wishes for ourselves during these
critical times.  You can order the Five Wishes from Aging with Dignity,
www.agingwithdignity.org.

We are openly discussing all these issues among ourselves at our
community meetings and on retreats and creatively looking for solutions
that address the needs we know will emerge as we age.

I appreciate other ideas that are coming out during this discussion.
Thank you.

Annie Russell
Community Builder for Wonderland Hill Development Company