Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: co-care agreements?

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

On Jan 24, 2017, at 5:05 PM, Mary Vallier-Kaplan <marycvk [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> frame it as a conversation about caring rather than aging as there are many
> opportunities for caring that are not age related such as births,
> illness/surgery/injury, birth/adoption, potential owners who come with
> caring needs, expanding one's family with individuals who need caring,

Absolutely. It isn’t the 80 year olds who are running around breaking ankles. 
Or having babies. Or going to an office retreat and needing someone to walk 
dogs, feed cats, or water plants. 

A repeated story: One of our members who uses a wheelchair had an automatic 
door installed at the entrance to our CH. That door is so useful to everyone. 
Strollers, walking a dog and a toddler at the same time, ankles in casts, on 
crutches, carrying bags of groceries, pushing the grocery cart. A child with a 
broken leg. The community pays for repairs and if it needed replacement, I’m 
sure we would also pay for a replacement.

Many of these things are for everyone.

One difference in aging is that there comes a place where an infirmity is more 
permanent. When I had back surgery, it was very helpful to have someone stop in 
everyday to see if I needed anything picked from the floor since I couldn’t or 
wasn’t supposed to bend. I got good with my toes and a reacher but there were 
limits. If that became a permanent condition then an ongoing solution would be 
needed. One would be to have those who need help hire the same person to come 
in so someone knowledgable with the community can provide service to several 
people. That set of people might change but the person might be employed a good 
percentage of the time by individuals.

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