Health & Fitness
Creating Caring Communities
A caring community is one where people feel and show concern and empathy for one another. What is it about seniors, many of whom are frail themselves, who take on looking out for their neighbors?
A truly caring community is one where members look after each other, where people feel and show concern and empathy for one another. At Stevenson House, I see our senior residents helping each other every day, as well as helping others in the community.
Some of our residents work as crossing guards in the neighborhood to protect our seniors and the school children at Hoover Elementary School next door. Several residents volunteer to pick up lunches from La Comida for our residents and neighborhood seniors who eat lunch at Stevenson House. Many residents help out their less mobile neighbors with grocery shopping and other errands.
What is it about these folks, many of whom are frail themselves, who take on looking out for their neighbors? In fact, residents with challenging conditions from post-polio syndrome to early dementia are supported by other seniors who have reached out with their best interest at heart. It is this caring that allows so many of our residents to live independently longer than they would have imagined.
Caring communities do not spring up fully developed. They need a nurturing environment that includes multiple opportunities for residents to make connections. At Stevenson House we offer occasions for residents to develop relationships from communal meals and afternoon coffee klatches to book clubs and political discussion groups, to name a few.
But ultimately it is the residents who create the caring community through an abundance of empathy and willingness to lend a hand. These qualities rise above mental and physical frailties.
We are not alone in providing these opportunities for seniors. Palo Alto is particularly fortunate to have Avenidas, which provides an array of resources, services and activities for seniors. Moreover, their efforts to create Villages aim to build caring communities of seniors who choose to remain in their homes, modeled after the Beacon Hill Village in Boston.
At Stevenson House, we are always searching for ways to expand our reach out to local seniors as well as others of all ages in the community that we can benefit. Do you have any other ideas?
