It Takes A Village

For seniors, part of the difficulty of staying out of a nursing home is the inability to do the little things: transportation, home visits, shopping.  See this interesting story about a new concept of senior "aging-in-place" villages cropping up around the country, where volunteers support seniors with those basic needs to help them be able to stay at home.  Although still an experiment, the concept seems to be picking up steam in many places, including Boston.  Perhaps it takes a village after all.  (And if you are interested in a unique healthcare model in Massachusetts for integrating care for seniors, see my Boston Globe op ed in the side bar from 7-20-09 entitled Retooling the Medicare/Medicaid Model).