Alliance Note: Yesterday, the Alliance joined City Council members and NYC Clubhouse supporters for a rally calling the city to change the current structure of their proposal to expand City-wide Clubhouse membership from 5,000 to 15,000. The City’s Clubhouse community strongly stated support for the mayor and city council’s overall goals of expanding clubhouse membership to help support more underserved New Yorkers with mental health challenges.
Clubhouses have been and must continue to be an integral part of the mental health service continuum in New York City. They are effective programs which offer members essential services such as connection to stable and appropriate housing, employment, education, and socialization. The Clubhouse community applauds the planned increase in resources, but the current plan to expand capacity needs considerable changes to guarantee no one who relies on Clubhouses loses services during the transition period.
The proposal’s preference for larger scale clubhouses puts the smaller ones, who have established relationships with members and many underserved communities, at risk of closure. Only a handful of Clubhouse around the world meet the City’s proposed minimum requirements of 300 active members. The two NYC Clubhouses which currently meet these standards had decades to grow to this level of service provision, suggesting the current two-year expansion timeline to scale new and current Clubhouses to 300 active members is far too short. The smaller clubhouses are happy to expand their membership to meet the city’s goals but must be allowed to do so in a manner which is more feasible than the current structure, with more time and resources to conduct needed outreach and connect with other providers to identify and engage more underserved populations who would benefit from these services.
The City Clubhouse community and the Alliance share the same goal as the mayor’s office and the city: support more New Yorkers with mental health challenges. We have always known how beneficial clubhouse membership is for people with mental health concerns and we strive to grow the membership of all clubhouses in the city. Existing Clubhouses, both big and small, have a wealth of knowledge and experience running the program and growing membership. We ask the mayor and the city to center the needs of these existing clubhouses and their members when reshaping the expansion plan so we can effectively and successfully offer far more people services. People want more access to Clubhouse services and the city Clubhouses are committed to working with the city to guarantee we provide these services to countless more New Yorkers. See below for coverage of yesterday’s rally at City Hall. You can support the efforts to change the current proposal by signing the Clubhouse petition here. Continue to monitor this enews for other ways you can get involved in advocacy for City Clubhouses.
Opposition To City’s New ‘Clubhouse’ Requirements That Aim to Grow Capacity Gains Steam
By Jacqueline Neber | Crain’s Health Pulse | January 4, 2024
The call among elected officials, staff and members of the mental health support facilities known as clubhouses urging the city to amend new contract requirements is growing as advocates voice fears of shutdowns and reduced services for individuals with severe mental illness.
City Council officials and clubhouse workers and members rallied outside City Hall Wednesday, pressing Mayor Eric Adams and the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to rethink the restrictions.
Attendees praised the administration for its recent $30 million funding commitment and proposal to triple capacity at the facilities, which connect individuals with health and legal services, help getting benefits and support in finding jobs. A New York University and Fountain House study suggests that the clubhouse model reduces inpatient services and emergency room use–and spending–among high-need members.
However, advocates for the spaces are increasingly concerned about the method by which the city wants to expand capacity: new requirements for getting contracts, funded by the $30 million, that were initially released in a DOHMH request for proposals in September. The 16 existing clubhouses must reapply for an anticipated 13 contracts, and the facilities must have at least 300 active members to qualify. Additionally, clubhouses located inside institutions such as hospitals are ineligible; they must be freestanding facilities.
According to a concept paper the Health Department released in June, the RFP aims to increase the number of individuals in clubhouse programs from 5,000 to 15,000 within the next two fiscal years. The city anticipates an overlap between current contracts and future awards to maintain continuity of care and will prioritize proposals from programs in high-need neighborhoods.
Rachel Vick, a representative from the Health Department, told Crain’s the city’s goal is to issue contracts to programs that will ensure quality and help more people access services.
“Reviewing and reinvigorating the contracts after more than a decade will connect members to resources to help them thrive in 2024 and beyond,” she said. She did not address a question about how the department arrived at the 300 active member requirement.
Officials, staff and members are asking the city to amend the active member requirement and push back the deadline for programs to apply for contracts. Instead of increasing membership mandates, they advocate for opening additional spaces.
They fear the regulations will cause smaller clubhouses to shut down and argue the RFP’s restrictions were built without community input–and that closures would cut New Yorkers’ access to necessary mental health services.
At the rally, Councilwoman Linda Lee said clubhouses need investment and expansion. But the RFP could cancel out growth plans if smaller facilities must close, particularly in mental health deserts serving vulnerable New Yorkers, she said.
Dice Cooper, the program director of the Lifelinks clubhouse, which operates out of New York City Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, added that his facility has about 145 active members with 35 people attending daily on average–far below the numbers necessary to get a contract.
“It’s just way beyond something that many of the clubhouses will be able to do,” he told Crain’s. He also advocated for the city to give the hospital-based programs time to transition into community-based spaces to avoid service lapses.
Members of the facilities said smaller spaces with fewer participants provide more opportunity for socialization and finding support. Lavelle Lockett, a member of Greater Heights clubhouse near Brownsville, is concerned larger facilities will overwhelm staff and negatively impact individuals’ mental health, particularly those who can’t travel to other clubhouses if theirs close.
When asked about the public’s concerns, Vick said feedback and responses are being reviewed. The deadline for clubhouses to submit proposals to earn contracts is Jan. 17.
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Supporters Of Mental Health Clubhouses Rip City’s Expansion Plan
By Maya Kaufman | Politico | January 4, 2024
Clubhouses where adults with serious mental illnesses can socialize and access services have enjoyed broad support in the City Council. Indeed, the Council voted last year to require the city to establish five new ones by the end of 2025.
Now nearly two dozen members of the Council have joined a growing call for a pause on Mayor Eric Adams’ clubhouse expansion plan, unveiled last March as part of a broader mental health policy agenda.
The expansion was heralded at the time by the CEO of Fountain House, a clubhouse operator that Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan used to helm.
But the city’s $30 million budget for the expansion comes with conditions that could, ironically, force many existing clubhouses to close, members and supporters say.
That’s because the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is forcing all current clubhouse operators to reapply for their contracts — while also setting minimum requirements for attendance and membership.
Contractors will be required to maintain at least 300 active members per clubhouse site and an average daily attendance of 90 people, the department’s request for proposals states.
Only one of the city’s 16 existing clubhouses meets those benchmarks, City Council members noted in a letter sent this week to Adams and Vasan.
“Clubhouses as they exist across the city with small, cohesive communities, will no longer exist,” they wrote.
Council members, clubhouse participants and mental health advocates rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday to press the Adams administration to pause the contracting process and lower its requirements.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the mental health challenges of each individual, and there is value in the close-knit, intimate functions that these smaller programs can provide,” Council Member Linda Lee, chair of the committee on mental health, disabilities and addictions, said in a statement.
However, the Health Department appears to have its sights set on larger clubhouses: “Proposals for larger programs are encouraged as some economies of scale exist for this program model without compromising quality,” its RFP says.
In a statement Wednesday, Health Department spokesperson Rachel Vick said, “This money is for more services to reach more New Yorkers who can benefit from the model.”The RFP deadline is Jan. 17.