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

[David Bodman (dkbodman]

Greetings!

I think I joined the mailing list at exactly the right time, since this is a
question I am mulling about.

Currently I am not a part of a co-housing community, but I'm thinking of
exploring this as a possible solution to a family situation where I need
some help.

I have a special needs wife, and a special needs child. Remembering the
mantra of the Clinton administration, "It takes a village to raise a child",
I'm wondering if a co-housing situation might help our situation. 

Wife is depressed, hypertensive, has some Sensory Integration problems, but
basically has lost "get up and go", and needs to be "pulled" into
participatory activity. Gets frustrated somewhat easily.

Son is LD, perhaps ADHD, and also gets frustrated easily. He's currently
attending a residential special needs school, and will probably continue
attending for a while. 
He comes home occasionally, with the current school he comes home every
weekend, but will soon age out of the current school, and I understand other
schools work it differently, with week long vacations less often during the
year.

Myself, I'm somewhat socially active, do some volunteer work and public
service, but find myself overworked trying to provide for wife and child. 

We've gone through several social service options, a socail worker who came
by for 2 hours a week, but it was too little to get my wife into an active
life.

Would co-housing be a help? Or should I look elsewhere??

David, in New Hampshire