New York City’s clubhouses — member-run facilities that offer support to those with serious mental health conditions — are proving that recovery and rehabilitation are possible, with some lawmakers like Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., hoping to expand the availability and access to these institutions for more residents.
Fountain House, which touts itself as the pioneer of the modern clubhouse model, aims to put an end to the “punitive, ineffective and costly” approaches to those with mental illness, who cycle through jails, emergency rooms, shelters and the streets without proper care or support to lead healthy and happy lives, the organization said.
The goal is to give members a sense of stability and community. At the clubhouses, they get a helping hand to obtain an education, find work, achieve health goals while readily having access to clinical care, housing assistance and other supportive services.
“What we are looking to do is to help people truly recover, and so that means help them return to jobs, be neighbors, and live out in the community and to have meaningful relationships,” Ian Campbell, Fountain House’s Senior Director of Employment and Learning, told ABC News.
What makes the clubhouse model so successful, Campbell said, is that they fill gaps not filled in a clinical setting. They support members with both economic barriers as well as the loneliness or isolation that patients are likely to also be experiencing.
About 15% of people with severe mental illness successfully return to work, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness — but at Fountain House, 25 to 30% of their active membership has returned to work.
A New York University study on Fountain House found that its services save Medicaid costs by up to 21% by reducing hospitalizations and ER visits as well as increasing primary care visits, increased outpatient mental health visits, and increased pharmacy visits – “essentially a better adherence to other forms of treatment that can further support members’ recovery,” Fountain House said in a statement.
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