| Yesterday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a comprehensive mental health plan that includes significantly scaling clubhouses like Fountain House, as well as other investments to support those living with serious mental illness, address youth mental health, and turn the tide of overdose deaths. The news recognizes how the clubhouse model, pioneered by Fountain House, and practiced in 14 clubhouses around the city (and another 300 across the globe) is uniquely positioned to engage people living with serious mental illness, spur recovery, and improve their quality of life and thriving. Fountain House CEO Ken Zimmerman and Fountain House Bronx member as well as a member of the Board of Directors Arvind Sooknanan joined Mayor Adams as he made the announcement. Nearly 1 in 25 New Yorkers live with serious mental illness yet more than 40% of them, roughly 100,000 people, are unable to get access to care. Too many of these fellow New Yorkers live in isolation, stigmatized, and without community — so-called negative symptoms of SMI that medication and other clinical treatments do not address. Clubhouses, which are designed and operated with and for those living with SMI, take a holistic approach to recovery — rooted in dignity, agency, and social supports — in which community is therapy. Additional funding will allow Fountain House and the city’s 14 other clubhouses to significantly expand their reach to more New Yorkers. “On behalf of Fountain House and our community of more than 2,000 people impacted by serious mental illness, I thank Mayor Adams, Health Commissioner Vasan, and the wider administration for their comprehensive commitment to mental health,” said Ken Zimmerman, CEO of Fountain House. “This important funding for clubhouses and our proven model of care will provide a significant return on investment, both in terms of lives improved and resources used most effectively. It suggests the vitality and hope that can and should be built into the city’s approach to mental health: one that prioritizes recovery and thriving, not just intervention. We encourage other cities to follow New York’s example — transforming the ways we perceive and treat mental illness as a public health priority.” “For generations of New Yorkers who have lived with serious mental illness in silence — isolated, overlooked, and neglected without access to meaningful recovery — the Mayor’s announcement offers real solutions and grants us the dignity, autonomy, and equity to live fully as real New Yorkers,” said Arvind Sooknanan, a member of Fountain House Bronx and Director on Fountain House’s Board. “This investment in clubhouses can turn the tide from people being forgotten in our jails, shelters, hospitals, and streets to being welcomed and embraced in our communities.” |
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| Fountain House: Fountain House Pleased to See New York’s Comprehensive Mental Health Plan Featuring Clubhouses Mayor Eric Adams today announced he will be significantly scaling clubhouses over the next four years as part of his comprehensive mental health plan for New York. The news recognizes how the clubhouse model, pioneered by Fountain House in Manhattan, is uniquely positioned to engage people living with serious mental illness (SMI), spur recovery, and improve their quality of life. | |
| New York Times: Street Teams and Clubhouses: A New Plan to Help Mentally Ill New Yorkers In an effort to address one of New York City’s greatest challenges as the city recovers from the pandemic, Mayor Eric Adams announced a mental health agenda on Thursday that expands key services for people with severe mental illness. The city’s plan includes building six new community behavioral health centers, with federal funding, for people with low incomes. It calls for $7 million in city money to expand clubhouses, which are widely regarded as a cost-effective way to help people with severe mental illness stay connected to supports. |
| New York Daily News: NYC Mayor Adams announces new mental health plan with teen virtual care, more ‘clubhouses’ to connect with jobs, education New York City will triple the number of “clubhouses” for people with severe mental health issues and create a new virtual mental health care service for teens under a new policy, Mayor Adams said Thursday. The expansion of clubhouses — which connect people with severe mental illness with jobs, education and structure — is a key part of a three-pronged plan that will also focus on strengthening harm reduction programs to better address the crisis in overdose deaths that’s plagued the city in recent years. | |
| Politico: Adams’ mental health agenda to focus on harm reduction and nontraditional approaches Mayor Eric Adams is poised to roll out a wide-ranging mental health plan that would triple the capacity of clubhouses for people with severe mental illness, launch a virtual mental health care platform for teens and bolster harm reduction services in neighborhoods like the South Bronx and upper Manhattan. |