Clubhouse Members Check Mental Illness at the Door

Everything shadows the working world. Simply just showing up can be a critical advance for many. The contact with other people, especially those dealing with similar struggles, can be stimulating.

Apparently simple tasks like meal planning and preparation and collecting the $1.50 from each member for lunch build skills for people who have never cooked for themselves and have been dependent on others for such ordinary aspects of life.

Members also write a monthly newsletter, relating events in their lives from their experience with mental illness to acquiring a cat. They also produce a weekly video “newscast” with tag-team anchorpeople and member-in-the-street interviews.

The commitment to preparing members for the working world extends beyond the clubhouse walls by means of a transitional employment program.

The B’more staff finds a local employer who offers an entry-level job to members. Then one of the three staff members goes to the job site and learns how to do the job. Only after that does the member arrive at the job, where he or she is trained by the staffer. The staffer serves another function—to step into the job if the member is unable to show up on a given day. That way, the employer is never left without help (see Restaurant Is About Lots More Than Great Pastrami).

Several members have been through the program, and Lynn is seeking additional employers to participate.

B’more also offers educational information and assistance to members. Thus far, seven members have gone back to school, two have completed bachelor’s degrees, and several have earned GEDs. Another has been accepted into the undergraduate social work program at the University of Maryland.

Members have a wide diversity of educational and employment histories. Some graduated from college, were married, or held significant jobs before the onset and diagnosis of their illness. Cathy was an elementary school teacher, Bev worked in marketing, David was an accountant, Brian worked for the Department of Defense, several served in the armed forces. Others have been able to hold only the simplest jobs because of the severity of their illness, yet they take part in the daily life of the clubhouse, as well.

Funding has largely come from about a dozen Baltimore foundations and more than 100 individual donors, said Gallagher.

“We chose not to seek public funding because it would mean following a medical model, including things like tracking medications,” said Gallagher. “That would be counterproductive to how a clubhouse works.”

Richard was one of the earliest B’More members. He spends much of his day at the clubhouse and helps write and edit the newsletter.

“Being a consumer to me means going to the hospital, smoking cigarettes,” said Richard. “I like not being considered a consumer here, being able to do something productive without having to be dependent on [other] people.”

This is the story of a dream and a hope that intersect around lunchtime in the middle of Baltimore.

Attorney David Shapiro still practices law but heeded the call of a longtime dream by opening a little restaurant crammed into a narrow rowhouse on Preston Street and specializing in falafel, schwarma, corned beef, and pastrami.

Brian was diagnosed with a serious mental illness and hopes to work his way back to full-time employment step by step.

“I’m sort of a utility person,” said Brian, of his job at Shapiro’s Café.

Brian works there five days a week from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. as part of the transitional employment program run by the B’More Clubhouse, a few blocks away.

“I wash dishes, take out the recycling, stock the shelves off the food delivery trucks, and make salads when we get busy,” he said.

Besides getting paid, the perks for the job include a free lunch. “The food is good, maybe too good,” he said. “I was gaining weight before I started cutting back.”

Brian will work there for six months, with the possibility to extend for another three months.

The transitional employment program is not a first permanent step into the workforce but is rather a resume builder. Members may work two or three such entry-level jobs for different employers before seeking full-time jobs. Brian would like to work next in the rare-book room at the Peabody Library, a job now held by another clubhouse member.

The process builds skills and, more importantly, a record of reliability when applying for future jobs.

Before Brian worked in his cafe, Shapiro hired two other B’More Clubhouse members. He expects to be a long-term supporter of the program.

“The staff bonds with the members, and we’re sorry to see them go at the end of their stint,” Shapiro said. “Brian rarely misses a day, and he’s always here 20 minutes ahead of time. It’s a place where I think he feels very welcomed and comfortable.”

“People are people,” said Brian. “They have whatever problems they have, but a lot of people want to get back into society, whether it’s working or volunteering.”