Stepping out. A range of social and cultural activities is also offered each month, from book groups and poetry readings to private film showings and docent-led museum tours. The social forays get Salamon out to do things she might not have done otherwise. She's been on an all-day trip with 39 other members to New Haven, Conn., to visit Yale's art gallery and its Center for British Art. Next up: an "Opinionated Lunch" and lecture on Campaign 2008, given by a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government at the trendy restaurant Henrietta's Table.
"People weave their social web, and it provides a mutual protection," says Janice Blanchard, director of the Office on Aging in Denver and a guru of the senior housing movement. "It's a social form of long-term-care insurance." Just being in your home won't save you from loneliness, boredom, and hopelessness—the three plagues often associated with nursing homes, she says. "Organizations like Cambridge at Home promote a deliberate consciousness to be a darn good neighbor."
"I've already met some new members who live in my neighborhood," says Salamon. "We can help each other. And as long as my mind is all right, I can stay here."
