Mental health agencies around the state are opening new community programs run for and by people with serious mental illness, the result of new state funding.
East House in Rochester is one of seven organizations receiving state funding to establish what’s called a “clubhouse.”
Clubhouses are community hubs that provide a space for people with serious mental illnesses to participate in volunteer work, recreation, and mental health recovery programs. They date back to the 1940s as an alternative to institutionalization.
East House is receiving $1.4 million to establish one.
“The goal of the Clubhouse International model is really to elevate the entire community behavioral health ecosystem,” East House President Lindsay Gozzi-Theobald said. “It's around having low cost, low barrier, high-impact community resources for people to engage that supports their recovery and supports their care transitions.”
The state Office of Mental Health announced the award as part of a larger — $6.3 million — grant funding initiative.
“Clubhouses allow individuals to pursue their own goals while building strong ties with colleagues and peers,” Office of Mental Health Commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan said in a statement. “By offering educational and vocational opportunities and connections to support networks, these programs also foster recovery and independence.”
At East House, the 5-year grant opens the door to create a more robust program that will transition out of a current, donor-funded service called Connections.
“We have different groups like life skills groups, computer groups, socialization groups, and so they are able to sign up and attend at their will,” said Shamicka Joseph, director of recovery support services at East House.
Unlike Connections, the clubhouse will be open to the community, not just people who are already receiving services through East House — and it will be run primarily by members instead of staff.
“For example, I run a life skills cooking group monthly," Joseph said. “With the clubhouse, it would be a member who would run that, and they would just have staff to oversee them and to connect with resources. But the members would run the daily programs and the administrative pieces as well.”
Clubhouses operate on a workday-like schedule with evening and weekend recreation. Because members run the operation, how that takes shape is in their power to decide.
“People participate in the meal planning, and the cooking, and the cleaning. They work together to create newsletters, or if they're more interested in doing something like a podcast,” said East House Vice President of Service Excellence Becky Maynard. “So we're really going to rely on the members of the clubhouse to design the environment the way that they want it to be for them.”
For Maynard, she hopes that includes sharing food.
“The fact that we're going to be providing meals each day — and the tasks of creating them and shopping and all of that — but there's such a food shortage or food need right now in terms of people's budgets and people on limited incomes,” she said. “I think that it's going to provide yet another support in the community that's going to be huge in the upcoming future.”
