In 1996 Joanie Hartnell-Beavis became very frail. She was admitted to hospital after a fall and upon her return required increasing care in her own home.

Eileen Caddy wanted to do whatever she could to keep Joanie at home. Their deep friendship had grown over 30 years. Joanie had supported Eileen in the early years in many ways, for instance by giving her a space to meditate in the early mornings in a comfortable warm space, rather than in the public toilet block. They had been close neighbours for all that time, both living around the Original Garden.

Eileen asked the Findhorn Bay Holistic Health Centre (FBHHC) whether we would be able to find a way to look after Joanie at home. Whilst we had not had that level of care involvement before, we did have some recent experience as we had looked after Elfreda Coy for a time before her death a few years before. Before that, most people had left the Community when they started to require more support as the ethos of the ‘working community’ strongly suggested that everyone had to be able ‘to pull their weight’.

I had joined the FBHHC earlier that year and worked in the office next to the General Office. With my professional background in nursing I felt confident in supporting Joanie’s care. So we embarked on a journey which brought so many blessings and learnings. But that is another story.

After a couple of months it became clear that we needed proper nursing care for Joannie and I found a nursing agency that would provide live-in nurses. This of course required funding as at that point there was no social care funding available for care at home. We started a fundraising campaign. Eileen wrote letters to extended Community members all around the world, and I donated my salary to the fund. In no time at all sufficient funds were raised and Joanie received round-the-clock nursing care at home until she died in October 1996.

After Joanie’s death, we decided to use the monies that remained to start an Elders fund to support Community members to be able to stay in the Community when they became more frail and required additional support.

Over the years many Community members who benefited from support by first the FBHHC and later by the CCC (Community Care Circle, later renamed Caring Community Circle) left a gift to the Elders fund. Some donors stipulated that they wanted to support not only individual care but also sustainable infrastructure to be able to deliver that care. Later that fund was renamed Community Care Fund, as it became obvious that age was not a deciding factor for the need of care in community.

For individual applications, the objective of the fund was defined as financial support for Community members requiring care in the community. It was made clear that it was to supplement any support available from statutory (rather than to replace those) – like Moray Council, social work or the health service – and private sources.

Over the years it has
• facilitated 24 hour nursing care at home, i.e. to cover the amounts that were not paid for by care allowances from benefits or from the local social care department (later Health&Social Care Moray)
• paid up front for funeral arrangements. This saved the executor and close friend of the deceased the stress of having to deal with all of the financial aspects when grief and mourning were the immediate needs. The estate then contributed to the fund.
• bought specialist equipment such as a hospital bed, an electric buggy and a bath hoist that allowed Community members to remain independent longer and to facilitate care at home
• supported the purchase of Community owned affordable Care Flats through lending funds through Ekopia, a community benefit co-operative. This mechanism ensured that the funds were put to their intended use of supporting care in community infrastructure whilst ensuring that funds could be made available should an individual application be received.

Organisational structure

Initially the fund was held by the charity Holistic Health Care Ltd (HHC) which operated the FBHHC, as well as Healthworks, a holistic health care centre in Forres. Even though the FBHHC closed in 1998 the charity continued to serve the Community by holding the fund. Applications were handled by members of the CCC.In 2018 the fund was transferred to Park Ecovillage Trust (PET) a charity with equivalent objectives to HHC as the CCC became a division of PET.

Barbara Vincent