Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Assisted living and CoHousing

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Jun 24, 2015, at 3:27 PM, Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah <welcome [at] olympus.net> 
> wrote:
> 
>  We are talking with a local cook about what it would take to create a Soup 
> Subscription. A cook might, for example, come and use our community kitchen 
> once a week to make some gallons of soup, with people committing to buying a 
> certain quantity on a regular basis.

I hadn’t thought of soup. I have thought about having someone come in and make 
sandwiches that people can pick up on their way to check mail. They can be 
wrapped and people’s names put on them. But soup has the same advantages —you 
can pick it up and add your own seasonings.

> My detail mind wonders how one determines who gets first dibs on such an 
> employee's schedule, but I suppose there are ways.

Perhaps like car sharing — reserve set times each week. But then there are 
emergencies. Relaxed time tracking would be the only way.

> Another way people have already helped each other here has been as support 
> for people who land up in our one local "skilled nursing facility": a 
> franchise-run, under-staffed outfit. If you're in there, it really helps to 
> have friends bringing food, watch-dogging the nursing care, etc. We've also 
> shared transportation and other help for members dealing with chemo and such. 

In cities in some states there are tons of support services. Some have a 
greater commitment to keeping people in their homes. In Des Moines, Iowa, my 
mother had meals delivered, housekeeping, manicures and pedicures, and a 
visiting nurse to layout medications. She had an apartment as nice as any of 
ours that was subsidized depending on income. It was a better option for my 
mother than living with any of her children in locations with no such services.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org