Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Seeking advice re mentally ill community member

[Fred H Olson (fholson]

byron patterson <byronpatterson [at] gmail.com>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org>
after deleting long bottom quote.
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Hi, Co-housers

The subject of mentally challenged individuals in communities; is an
ongoing exploration in human pathology. Individuals whom are perceived
to be portraying abnormal behavior in communities, is due to some reflection
of the the individuals personal experience. Cultivating a civil society in
communities takes continuous work. I believe examples are good ways of
teaching. There is a necessity to understand the diversity of our
communities.

This is hard when individual expression is suppressed, although when there
is immediate concern of the community's well being, some mechanism of
conflict resolution most be in place. Historically, the conflict have
resulted in displacement of individuals and death. An example is sweeping
the dust under the rug. Short term solutions seem to be a frequent
approach to problems, but factor in that decisions have cumulative
effects. Goodluck