NYC hatches new 'clubhouses' for people with serious mental illness

Robert Zhou, 26, arrived in New York City from the Bay Area a few months ago filled with concerns about his ability to adjust socially and find a job.

“ It's definitely overwhelming for someone who has a mental illness,” Zhou said.

But on a recent afternoon, Zhou seemed right at home in the common room of a

clubhouse called Elements House that opened near the border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side in January, which he says has softened his landing into the city.

It’s one of about a dozen clubhouses for people with serious mental illnesses that are opening or expanding across the five boroughs, aided by millions of dollars in new funding from the city health department.

At least five additional clubhouses that were at risk of closing after losing health department contracts last year are also still going strong. The City Council renewed their funding in the new budget that takes effect Tuesday, further expanding city support for the model.

The sites are seen as a key policy tool for reducing social isolation among people with serious mental illnesses and improving their health outcomes. Studies show clubhouses can help improve members’ quality of life while reducing spending on psychiatric hospitalizations.

Zhou said he found Elements while looking for a church to join shortly after arriving in the city. He was referred by a priest at the church that shares a building with the clubhouse and is now meeting new people and getting help applying for benefits and updating his resume.

“ Just having that support actually makes a huge difference,” Zhou said.

Clubhouses seek to help people with serious mental illnesses form social bonds and a sense of purpose. Members, who can be referred or apply on their own, help run clubhouses alongside staff. They help shape each center with their particular interests and preferences, while also getting connected to outside employment, education and social services. Clubhouses typically have kitchens, dining rooms, computer rooms and spaces to make art, and can also include things like gardens and gyms.

While the model isn’t new — the world’s first clubhouse, Fountain House, was founded in Hell’s Kitchen by former psychiatric patients in the 1940s — it has remained a relatively obscure piece of the mental health system.

Mayor Eric Adams is trying to change that. Last year, the city health department doubled the annual funding for clubhouses to $30 million and set an ambitious goal for the centers to triple enrollment from around 5,000 members citywide to 15,000 over two years.

The initiative, championed by former city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who previously ran Fountain House, has formed a key part of the mayor’s mental health plan.

“Clubhouses are important anchor institutions in our community mental health system,” Vasan said in an announcement of the expansion plan in 2023. He added that clubhouses can serve as an “early warning system” for mental health crises because they engage with members on a regular basis.

But the plan met a lot of resistance from within the clubhouse community.

As part of the expansion, the health department overhauled its contracts with clubhouse operators and set targets of 300 to 600 members for each clubhouse to meet — numbers clubhouse insiders said were almost unheard of in existing facilities around the world.

At the same time, the city health department ended its contracts with several smaller clubhouses, leading members to protest outside City Hall.

A year later, at least five of the smaller clubhouses that lost contracts with the city remain open, thanks to discretionary funding from City Council — but they now have to fight for the money they need to survive each year.

In the city’s budget deal, which was reached Friday, the City Council set aside $3 million for these clubhouses, just under the $3.5 million they requested.

“The Council recognizes the importance clubhouses have for New Yorkers facing mental health challenges” Rendy Desamours, a Council spokesperson, said last week.

Meanwhile, the Adams administration continues to defend its approach.

"Under long overdue new contracts, clubhouses will be able to increase quality of service and support more New Yorkers experiencing serious mental illness,” said Rachel Vick, a spokesperson for the city health department.

Members help get new clubhouses off the ground

Many of the 13 health department-funded clubhouses that are opening or expanding in Harlem, Staten Island, the Bronx and other parts of the city are still building out new spaces and recruiting new members.

“It’s a very slow process, of course, in the beginning, but we've been getting increasing numbers of referrals from hospitals and community health centers and LGBT organizations and veterans organizations,” said Peter Gudaitis, executive director and CEO of New York Disaster Interfaith Services, the homeless services provider that operates the Elements clubhouse.

Elements has gained about 30 members so far, but is striving for 600.

Venture House, a veteran clubhouse operator that now has the most locations in the city, is expanding its clubhouses in Jamaica, Queens, and Staten Island, while opening new clubhouses in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

The Bronx clubhouse is currently in a temporary storefront location, which Venture House CEO Juliet Douglas said has actually helped with recruitment.

“There’s a lot of foot traffic there and we have our doors open,” Douglas said, adding that the clubhouse already has over 170 members. “People stick their heads in, they inquire, ‘What is this place?’”

The addiction treatment organization Phoenix House, which recently opened a new clubhouse in Harlem, still has a membership count in the single digits. Staff and founding members are setting up tables on the sidewalk and at community events and hosting open houses to make their presence known.

But since clubhouse members are supposed to be involved in making key decisions, including what kind of programming is offered, launching a new one “is a lot of building the plane as you fly it,” said Savannah Lampley, the director of the Phoenix House clubhouse.

She said she’s waiting to recruit more members before starting the process of coming up with a name.

At Elements, Temes Mo, 57, said he joined from another clubhouse because he was eager to be in Chinatown, around people with a similar background to his.

Mo said he was responsible for making sure the clubhouse had a fish tank. “ We're thinking about having a 20 gallon tank and we have all sorts of tropical fish that we could put together with the beta,” he said, adding that he had previously worked at a pet store.

Richard Osoria, the assistant director of Elements, showed off a range of new equipment the clubhouse purchased to help members build new skills and interests, too — podcasting equipment, machines to put logos on hats and T-shirts, a sewing machine and a 3D printer.

He said both staff and members are still figuring out how to use it all.

“ I've never used a 3D printer before,” Osoria said. “It kind of gives me a little anxiety.”

But, he said, “We’re learning together. That’s what I love about clubhouses.”