October 15, 2019 —
By Frances Kolarek —
Feeling under the weather last month, I straggled into our Clinic and said, “I’m sick.” I was escorted into a private examining room where a nurse took my vital signs and a nurse-practitioner listened to my chest and said, ”You have bronchitis.” The Clinic faxed a prescription for a Z-Pack, the remedy of choice for bronchitis, to the pharmacy Collington deals with.
Back home, I went to bed, and a few hours later I was swallowing “Pill No. One,” delivered to my door by the pharmacy. A phone call to dining services assured me that a take-out dinner would be delivered around 5 o’clock. Can you can beat that?
Are you wondering where I live? No. Not a nursing home. Not an assisted living facility. I live at Collington, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC), the clumsy name for a place where I lead a completely independent life in the cottage or apartment of my choice. Where I avail myself of the many services Collington offers including health care — the “continuing care” of our name. Should I need the medical attention offered by an assisted living facility or a nursing home, it is available, right here where I live independently. If a spouse falls ill, he or she is nearby and visits are simple.
Collington offers a place where snow shovels, leaky roofs and balky lawn mowers, as well as shopping for and preparing meals, are things of the past. Where an indoor pool and gym with the latest equipment await. A sociable cup of coffee with neighbors in the Ivy Lounge is just a short walk away and a glass of wine is offered pre-dinner and with the meal. Where evenings may schedule a movie, a concert, or a talk about current events. Or, if that’s your style, you can stay home reading the latest bestseller borrowed from our library.
Yet the world at large seems strangely unaware of the existence of the “Continuing Care Retirement Community.” Perhaps we, ourselves, are to blame for this widespread ignorance. Would a shorter, more descriptive name help? Something like Elderesidence?
It is hard for me to understand why self-congratulatory adult children of aging parents stick them away in an apartment to fend for themselves, and are happy that they haven’t “put” their parents “in a place like that,” totally ignorant of the existence of a Retirement Community that offers independent living. And yes, I have sung this song before.
But no. The media speak only of ”nursing homes” or “assisted living” facilities. Never “retirement community.” What’s the problem? Do we need a new name? Readers! Suggest something.
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Let me know what you think. Drop me a line at CollBlog2@gmail.com.