New York Chapter Caring Collaborative
Caring Collaborative Mission Statement
The Caring Collaborative (CC) is a program within The Transition Network (TTN). We are committed to empowering and supporting one another in remaining healthy and energetic, and to helping one another when medical issues arise. We offer assistance in periods of temporary disability, personal support with health practitioners and an extra set of hands at home, when requested. We accomplish these goals through the various activities sponsored by CC.
Membership in the Caring Collaborative is available to TTN members. A required orientation session, held every few months, ensures that new members understand the scope and boundaries of the Collaborative’s activities.
• Health Strategies Seminars - The CC sponsors four programs a year, presented by accomplished practitioners in their field, focusing on health and wellness issues. These programs concentrate on staying healthy and vigorous.
• Assistance Network - The members offer to help CC colleagues who need temporary or occasional assistance in a doctor’s office, coming home from the hospital, picking up prescriptions and similar activities. And, there is an opportunity to receive help in return. This “help insurance” is both reassuring and cost-effective.
• Neighborhood Groups – We have created Neighborhood Groups for those who wish to get to know members within their local area. They meet at members’ homes to discuss topics of interest that relate to health and wellness. These groups build friendships and promote mutual assistance in times of need.
• Member Information Exchange (MIX) – MIX is a valuable resource and repository of members’ knowledge of physicians, including alternative and complementary providers, medical diagnoses, and experiences. It provides an opportunity to speak directly and confidentially to other members who have had similar health issues, surgeries, re-hab, and other treatments. Access to CC members with useful information and to the MIX archives is gained via contact with the CC administrator.
Sulekha Prasad at info@ttncaringcollaborative.org
For more information on this new benefit of TTN, go to the National MIX page on the TTN website, or click here. To opt in to National MIX, go to the Join/Renew page for instructions.
• Health and Wellness Directory – This PDF contains web links to a wide variety of resources for information on health-related topics and for obtaining additional services such as food delivery, home care, transportation, etc. Click here to access the Directory
Caring Collaborative members also receive our quarterly newsletter, The Caring Times. View recent issues of the Caring Times: September 2012; June 2012; March 2012.
For the Caring Times June 2012: Upper West Side 2 Guide to Peaceful Places In and Around NYC.
Free -- Medical emergency cards, with holders, to carry in your purse or magnetically pin to your refrigerator. On these cards, you can enter your emergency contacts and your medical data. Please look for them at TTN and CC general meetings and at your local group.
You can also get three downloadable Manuals, researched by the Caring Collaborative Committee and written under a New York State grant. They are: Creating a Caring Collaborative; Creating a Vertical Village in a High Rise-Building; What You Need to Know When You Go To The Hospital.
Access them here.
For more information, please go to the FAQs page.
To Join or Renew, go to the Join/Renew page
To make a donation to help support the TTN Caring Collaborative, click here.
"I was hospitalized for a week a few years ago and had to hire someone to bring me home and take me to appointments. Not any more! What a boon this project is.”
"I'm a very self-sufficient type, but I needed help that day--and I got it, thanks to the Caring Collaborative.”
“The Caring Collaborative volunteer made me feel secure. I could just relax, knowing she was ready and willing to take me home after a medical procedure.”
“My daughter has young children and can’t always be available when I need her. The Caring Collaborative means the pressure is off, for me and for her.”
