This week, New York state announced a multimillion-dollar investment in the expansion of clubhouses, community hubs for mental health support.
Some of that money will go to a Rochester agency called East House.
The following is a transcript of a conversation between WXXI’s Noelle Evans and All Things Considered Host Beth Adams.
BETH ADAMS: So, of course, there are places people can go to get diagnosed and treated for mental illness, but this resource, which is called a clubhouse, is not that at all. It's something completely different.
NOELLE EVANS: Yes.
ADAMS: What is a clubhouse?
EVANS: So a clubhouse, at its core, is a group of people. These are folks that have mental illnesses like major depressions, schizophrenia, PTSD, bipolar, mood disorders. But the idea is that community is healing. So a clubhouse exists in a space, but the clubhouse itself is considered the group of people. If you were to participate, you come in and there are different units you can plug into, whether that's like cooking, whether that's communications, the idea is that you're building up life skills, social skills, being able to navigate relationships.
ADAMS: So, how does a clubhouse differ from what we might think of as a traditional clinical mental health psychiatric unit setting?
EVANS: This is not a psych ward. I think what people might think of in terms of like the traditional settings and all of that when it comes to psychiatric care is that sort of hierarchy of patient to doctor, patient to provider, diagnosis, the medication, the treatment. This is about community. It's about building friendships. It's about building a sense of self-worth and confidence, building up those life skills,.
ADAMS: And it’s the participants doing the building? Am I right?
EVANS: Yes. The idea is that the members are the ones driving the ship; they're the ones that are determining what it is that they want to do and how to go about doing it with assistance from staff. But it is the members that are taking on that responsibility.
ADAMS: So, where does this concept of clubhouses come from, and is there a proven track record for its benefits?
EVANS: It started in the 1940s, so there was a group of psychiatric patients, as the story goes, group of psychiatric patients at a state hospital near New York City, who were going to be discharged, and they formed this social support network together to sort of navigate that reentry into society. From there, it's taken off elsewhere. It's in at least 20-plus states in 30- some countries, and in terms of what's the proof that this even works? There's a wealth of research into the benefits: reduced hospitalization, lower rates of incarceration, higher rates of like longer term employment, and then overall sense of well-being improved as well.
ADAMS: Is there a timeline for when these clubhouses will be seen in Rochester, in communities around New York state? The funding's in place, now what happens?
EVANS: Now what happens? So I can speak for locally. So East House, they mentioned it could be six to 12 months. They have a startup group of folks who are already in a program called Connections. That program is going to transition into their clubhouse, and so these folks are responsible for establishing, OK, what location do we want, and then the next steps there could be a year from now, might be a little sooner. TBD, you know. This also is something that is moving at the grace of how fast state government moves too.
ADAMS: Noelle Evans, thanks again.
EVANS: Thank you.
