• About Mental Illness
  • Key Facts About Mental Illness
  • Clubhouses: A Source of Hope
  • Clubhouse Member Stories
  • Clubhouse FAQ

Clubhouses offer people who have mental illness hope and opportunities to reach their full potential.

A Clubhouse is:

• A place where people with serious mental illness (known as Clubhouse members) participate in their own recovery process by working and socializing together in a safe and welcoming environment.
• An organization that operates on proven Standards coordinated by Clubhouse International and effective in over 300 Clubhouses worldwide since 1989.
• A community-based approach that complements available psychiatric treatment.

Clubhouses are:

• Holistic: offering members opportunities for friendship, employment and education, and access to quality housing, medical and psychiatric services through a single caring and safe environment.
• Inclusive: allowing members to meet and follow the example of others who are achieving their personal aspirations and goals.
• Sustaining: helping members become productive members of society over the course of their lives.
• Responsive: dedicated to continuous improvement based on direct feedback from members.
• Cost-Effective: providing members, families and communities significantly more value for money than other approaches.

Essential characteristics of a Clubhouse are:

• Membership is voluntary.
• Members have a key role in organizing Clubhouse activities.  Staff and members work together as colleagues.
• The work and social activities in the Clubhouse are meaningful and help members regain self-worth, confidence, purpose and develop friendships.
• Clubhouses provide paid employment opportunities in local community businesses for members who want work; they help members become successful employees.
• Clubhouses help members successfully complete their education.

Outcomes from Clubhouse participation include:

Employment, with longer on-the-job tenure for members engaging in Clubhouse Transitional Employment ¹

Cost effective, compared to other mental healthcare approaches (The cost of Clubhouses estimated to be one-third of the cost of the IPS model; about half the annual costs of Community Mental Health Centers; and substantially less than the ACT model.) ²

A significant decrease in the number of hospitalizations, as a result of membership in a Clubhouse program. ³

Reduced incarcerations, with criminal justice system involvement substantially diminished during and after Clubhouse psychosocial program membership. ⁴

Improved Well-Being compared with individuals receiving psychiatric services without Clubhouse membership. Clubhouse members were significantly more likely to report that they had close friendships and someone they could rely on when they needed help. ⁵

A recent study suggests that service systems should prioritize services that offer ongoing social supports like Clubhouses, as they enhance mental and physical health by reducing disconnectedness. ⁶

¹Sources: ¹ Macias, Kinney and Rodican (1995).  ² McKay, Yates, and Johnsen (2005); IPS model reported by Clark et al (1998); ACT model reported by Macias et al (2001).  ³ De Masso, Avi-Itzak and Obler (2001).   4 Johnson and Hickey (1999).  5 Warner, Huxley and Berg (1999).  6 Leff and colleagues (2004).

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