In the field of long-term care or senior services, we try to always come up with new names to create a little bit of freshness to the idea of what it means to grow old in our society. In this community (Greenwich Village, New York City), people came here many years ago, now they’re in their late 60s, early 70s, mid 80s. What we’re trying to do is say, look, if they’re here, why don’t we try to build a community around them? So that’s what we call a “naturally occurring retirement community” for all intents and purposes. What we try to do is help individuals remain independent as long as possible. 

We try to help them remain independent so they are not forced out of their home.

One way we do that is by providing a Village Care Day Treatment program which offers a wide range of services. Our medical day treatment program is a very unique program: individuals who are living at home. They have some support system, frequently families, sons and daughters, maybe a sister living with them, but they really need ongoing social support, psychological support, medical support. So this is a unique program that blends social, medical, mental services, physical therapy. They come here for five hours a day, they get a full meal, we try to help them remain independent so they are not forced out of their home.  - Arthur Webb

See Village Care of New York for more information about the programs Webb describes.

These comments were taken from original interviews for the Embracing Aging documentary and have been paraphrased slightly for readability.

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