Graceful aging

If it’s Wednesday morning, Ray Shunk is donning his skunk-skin hat and trekking down to the Eastside’s Allen Neighborhood Center in Lansing. There he is meeting up with Peggy Woods, 85, and about 20 others for the weekly Discovery Group meeting. It is an interest group for seniors that has become a social lifeline for some.

Meetings include trips, speakers on topics like “a Day in the Life of a Police Dog” or various candidates’ pre-election positions. There will never be Bingo, nor a speaker about chronic disease, something they are too familiar with already.

The members are independent-minded and typical of the fastest growing sector of the U. S. population: those over 80 years. They do not look favorably on moving to a nursing home.

Theywant to age in the community and “overcome the multi-billion-dollaragingindustrial complex trying to put us into prefabricated genericslots in nursing homes,” says Raines Cohen, a Northern Californiabasedguru on senior housing alternatives. "Toage in place,” as the bureaucrats would say. Coming right behind themare the baby boomers, a group that has had fewer children than previousgenerations and is less likely to be married, meaning reducedtraditional support systems as they age, according to the Centers onCommunicable Diseases.

Woodsis beating the odds. She is remarkably healthy, walks to Frandor andtakes the bus home. The former nurse has lived in her one-story home onFairview Avenue for 30 years and is still able to care for her yardwith help from her daughter and grandson.

Sheknows her grandson will move on and she doesn’t want her daughter toworry about her. So she is particularly intrigued with a city-fundedexperiment called Eastside Living that may assist in maintaining herhouse as well as shore up her social support system.

Theexperiment comes out of a uniquely qualified group of 60-somethings:Dorothy Boone was with the Michigan State Housing Development Authorityfor 30 years before she became Lansing’s development director; JoanNelson, 61, director of the Allen Neighborhood Center, lives in alarge, old house with growing maintenance problems; Lynne Martinez, 62and between jobs, is a former legislator, former director of theGreater Lansing Housing Coalition and daughter of a mother who justleft a nursing home because she hated it; and Dave Muylle, a builderwho has long talked of creating a cluster of senior cottages in Lansingfor his own parents. Each of them faces decisions about their own andtheir families’ futures.

Putthose heads together and you get a $10,000 Community Development BlockGrant to the Allen Neighborhood Center to conduct a one-year pilotprogram that would offer a range of services to help people remain intheir homes.

Martinezconducts surveys to determine the kind of services residents over 50years old might want. She is also designing a business plan, strikingdeals with businesses and service providers like plumbers andcarpenters who would work for reduced rates.

Nelsonalready knew of the Beacon Hill Village, which was started in 2001 inan upscale neighborhood of Boston. A basic program offering servicesand support for seniors has now evolved into a national movement. Thereare 50 operating Village organizations across the United States and onein Australia. The ANC joined the Village program, receiving a mentorand guidelines, but opted not to form a franchise, hoping to create aprogram unique to Lansing. Village services typically includeinformation referrals, home health care, access to transportationservice and assistance with household tasks.

Paramountin the program’s design will be inclusion for all incomes, perhaps witha sliding scale or scholarships. Woods projects she’ll need such aservice when she’s 90 years old.

“Eastside Living will be a nice service to have down the road,” she said.