Page 20 - Seniorstoday May 2024 Issue

Mind Matters

Social Connections Keep

Seniors Healthy

More and more studies are discovering how senior communities can be
designed to maximise sharing, friendship, health, and happiness in our
later years, writes Dr Monika M. Dass

As we age, we tend to shed family and woman with a friendly smile and a
friends—which can hurt our mental sharp wit. For the last two decades she’s
and physical health. How can we design been living in an intentional farming
communities for seniors that facilitate community called “Potluck Farm” with
social connections? other individuals and families on 170 acres
“Vonda is an energetic 73-year-old in rural North Carolina.
But recently, she realised something:
She’s getting older. Though she loves the
farm, living far apart on separate six-acre
parcels means that neighbours do not see
each other that often and cannot easily help
each other in a pinch. Caring for the large
piece of property is getting tougher, too.
So, she and some friends have begun
building a new community - smaller and
adjacent to the old - where houses will be

Vonda Frants (foreground, in pink shirt) putting the roof on the built closer together, more activities will be
common house for Potluck Farm’s new Elderberry community. shared, and neighbours will grow food and

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