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No, I don't think the concept here is even remotely akin to Carsville or a
quarantine of Aids victims.  It just is a more comfortable option for care or
help particularily for those people where loners  like Mary Yost can be
caregivers for each other.  There is a young man in our support group with
rather advanced PD whose wife couldn't cope so she left him and took their
 young children and moved  so her parents could help look after the children
whilst she worked.  He can't afford an apartment near his medical help so
lives in a nearby town with no  transportation.  His world fell apart when
his family left and again when he recently had to stop driving his car.  A
nursing home for him seems to loom on the horizon.  Wouldn't Pee Dee Village
help his situation?  Maybe our Ca computer friend would still be alive with
special support from other victims of PD.  My cowboy friend  fears his next
step is a nursing home as it is   harder and harder to cope at the ranch in
the wilds.  Wouldn't they all be happier in a "colony" specifically set up to
making PD easier to cope with.  The healthiest of us teaching patients and
caregivers to be independent.  Housing with no  stairs.  Big doorways.  Lots
of strategically placed grab bars.  Large stall showers with seats, and lever
type door handles and water tap handles, and a trapeze over the bed to help
turn over or arise. Nearby accessible medical care by knowledgable
professionals.  Social and recreational facilities. It would not be utopia
but it would be more comfortable and safer and maybe less lonely  for a lot
of people.  Less caregiver burnout too.
 
Think about it.
 
I received a message from a man who said he had heard that thirty or forty
years ago a woman from New York  sought to establish a Parkinson's "village"
to better care for people with PD.  She put together a community in Florida
and the idea later evolved into the National Parkinson's Foundation.  This
man doesn't have any specifics, but thinks it would be interesting to verify
this and see how the concept developed.
 
Interestingly I lived in Miami many years ago and there was an apartment
building on the 79th Street Causeway which was used as a PD clinic and I
believe a residence for patients coming to be evaluated and treated.
 Probably some patients lived there after the big NPF state of the art
headquarters was built near Jackson Memorial Hospital.
 
Anne Rutherford (Newfoundland) - the UK PD village I read about is either in
Walsall or Birmingham.  Simon Coles father, Derek Coles was a member of the
Executive Committee and Chairman/Trustee of PDS at that time - l992.  The
opening of their specialized housing project for people with PD was planned
for l994 the 25 anniversary of the Society.  I hope you can get an update.
 Yes Anne, we need a dedicated mover and shaker with ability to tap the
business and finance end of a project like this.  Are you out there grant
writer or philanthropist or interested talented business person with energy?
 Canadian, American - both.
 
Barbara Yacos