By Susan Jaffe  | February 28, 2014 |  Kaiser Health News produced in collaboration with 

It used to be difficult for Edith Couturier, an 85-year-old resident of the District of Columbia, to explain to her adult children on the West Coast all the details of her medical appointments. But now she doesn’t go alone — she takes along a volunteer “medical note taker.”

“There are four ears listening to what the doctor says,” said Couturier. That second set of ears belongs to Sharon Wolozin, who takes notes the old-fashioned way – with pen and paper – and then reads some of the main points aloud to confirm them with the doctor.

Wolozin is a volunteer for the Northwest Neighbors Village in Washington, D.C., one of the more than 200 “villages” across the United States. These neighborhood membership organizations provide volunteers and other resources to help with everything from transportation and snow shoveling to hanging curtains and solving computer glitches.

But as many of the Northwest Neighbors’ 210 dues-paying members “age in place” – the village movement’s top goal — some need more than just a ride to the doctor, said executive director Marianna Blagburn.
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