Abstract
Prior to the 1960s, people suffering from a serious mental illness (SMI), such as schizophrenia, major depression, and other conditions, lived in state institutions and asylum wards. Although these asylums for the mentally ill evolved from a caring, therapeutic approach of the moral treatment, by the mid-twentieth century these institutions had become overcrowded, underfunded, and hardly reflective of the humane values upon which they were originally based. The story of Fountain House, a working recovery community known as a “clubhouse,” relates a different narrative concerning the treatment of mental illness. While society historically relegated people living with serious mental illness to the periphery, today Fountain House welcomes them on West 47th Street to find meaning in their lives and invited them to demonstrate their productive talents in the heart of New York City. As early allies in community psychiatry recognized the importance of not only providing physical and psychiatric care but also the social component of relationships and a place to belong Fountain House offers.
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Notes
- 1.
Traitement morale, or the moral treatment, was a psychological treatment for people suffering from mental illness developed by the renowned French physician Philippe Pinel in the late eighteenth century. It emphasized therapeutic observations and discussions and an environment conducive to a humane, caring approach to mental illness.
- 2.
The term working community ™ was introduced by Fountain House to describe its signature approach to supporting its members in recovery from mental illness and more recently augmented by further articulation of the approach defined as Social Practice by Fountain House.
- 3.
Mandiberg (2010) notes the importance of such relationships, which are currently overlooked in hospital discharge planning for psychiatric patients.
- 4.
A similar movement was taking place in England with the therapeutic community of Maxwell Jones (1953) that involved the entire hospital community in contributing to the recovery process.
- 5.
Additionally, Fountain House operates an international training institute, a professional art gallery for member artists to sell their paintings, and a rural farm in northern New Jersey, providing services for hearing-impaired adults and serving young adults with mental illness and college re-entry.
- 6.
Figures do not include the number of staff separately employed in the Fountain House housing program.
- 7.
Transitional employment was an innovation wherein Fountain House partnered with employers in establishing a temporary position for its members to test out their abilities and establish a work history.
- 8.
Nirav Shah Shah, N. R., MD, 2011. From a transcript of remarks at the opening of the Sidney Baer Center at Fountain House New York, June 14, 2011
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Pernice, F., D’Angelo, L., Dudek, K., Michon, A., Aquila, R. (2022). Fountain House and the Clubhouse Movement. In: Sowers, W.E., McQuistion, H.L., Ranz, J.M., Feldman, J.M., Runnels, P.S. (eds) Textbook of Community Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10239-4_39
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