Rural living

Work with older adults often invokes re-membering conversations and sparks new pathways through connections with the past. By listening deeply we work with our clients to find strength, courage and agency to continue life’s journeys.  Often illness or loss forces us to accept unimagined challenges and changes that stretch our resources. By developing an understanding of these changes and mapping a new course, clients in the eldercare program call upon inner and outer resources to navigate the course, enrich their relationships and challenge expectations. Nearly 20 years ago Vermont addressed the problems of rural living and social isolation among elders who qualify as homebound and for whom psychotherapy is not accessible by creating traveling clinicians who visit elders in their homes to address family and individual issues. This program partners with community partners serving elders. This salon offered a glimpse into the work of the Eldercare Clinician and a sampling of some rescued word poetry.