with AMY KENNEDY, RICH AMBROSINO
Community-based mental health care is proven to work and is cost-effective.
Think for a moment about what’s important to you and your family. Is it a nice community to be part of? A good job? Good friends? A strong support system? People living with serious mental illness want the exact same things, but those things don’t come as easily for them.
Nearly 2 million people in New Jersey live with SMI; it touches many of us in unique ways and supporting people with SMI is a cause that an overwhelming majority of voters agree our leaders should prioritize.
We can no longer afford to ignore the reality: our current approach to mental health care in New Jersey is incomplete. Compassionate, respectful and well-resourced public policy to support those most impacted by mental illness is long overdue. We all understand the problem at hand. Now, it’s time for our leaders to invest in the solutions.
Right now, Gov. Phil Murphy and the New Jersey Legislature are setting the priorities for the upcoming state budget. Funding a cost-effective, holistic approach to mental health care, like the Clubhouse Model used at Shore House, is where we need to begin.
Shore House, located in Long Branch, is New Jersey’s first – and only – accredited Clubhouse. States like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and others have realized the scientifically proven Clubhouse Model’s success and embraced it by funding clubhouses. To date, New Jersey has not provided for adults living with SMI by embracing and funding the Clubhouse Model on a scale needed to support its citizens.
Pioneered in 1948 by Fountain House in New York City, the Clubhouse Model is a supportive, therapeutic environment made for – and by – people living with SMI. It starts with the idea that “community is therapy.” While at a clubhouse, people living with SMI, known as members, are connected to resources that support their basic needs: employment, relationship–building, activities, education, housing, meals and access to crisis intervention services when needed. Clubhouses create close-knit communities, serving as the glue that keeps members engaged and successfully connected to mental health care.
Interestingly, we currently find ourselves at an instance where doing the right thing is also good politics. New polling from Lake Research Partners shows that, even in the current uncertain economic environment where rising costs and inflation are top of mind for many of us, voters across party lines are more likely to support an elected official who supports increasing funding for SMI intervention and programs.
Too often, people’s understanding of mental health care starts and stops with therapy and medication. While both are vital tools in many treatment plans, people living with SMI may also require care that goes further to address the many ways in which mental illness impacts a person’s life: social isolation, loss of employment, insecure housing and strained relationships. The Clubhouse Model of community-based mental health care was developed to fill that void in our health care system by connecting people to their communities and opening doors to a meaningful life.
We know voters want solutions and the Clubhouse Model is proven to work. Most importantly, we know the Clubhouse Model is exceptionally cost-effective: one year at Shore House costs less than a two-week hospital stay. Over the past three years, Shore House members have had a rehospitalization rate of less than 2%, compared with a rate of more than 40% for adults living with mental illness who don’t have access to a clubhouse.
The Clubhouse Model has over 200 accredited clubhouses that exist in 30 states across the country. They have been scientifically proven to not only decrease rehospitalizations but also increase independence and feelings of self-worth for people living with mental illness. Despite the achievements of the Clubhouse Model, the state of New Jersey only has one — Shore House.
We urge Murphy and New Jersey’s legislative leaders to provide funding in the upcoming state budget in support of the Clubhouse Model and use the existing success of Shore House to expand the model throughout New Jersey. In doing so, we can create a safer, more supportive community that provides real solutions to a problem we all recognize. Let’s start funding community-based mental health programs like Shore House that are proven to be successful.
