National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships
Veteran Community Partnerships
For one Veteran, a local ‘Clubhouse’ is a place he can be himself and connect with friends
Mr. Paul Harney, a 58-year-old Army Veteran, said that the Circle City Clubhouse in Indianapolis is “a good place to just be somebody, to just be yourself.”
Mr. Harney loves art (painter Norman Rockwell is his hero) and classical music by composers like Tchaikovsky. One of his favorite things to do at Clubhouse is tend to the chicken coop there.
“The chickens are so much fun to watch. I let them out for an hour every day. They’re amazing little critters,” he said.
Mr. Harney has been a member of the Clubhouse for more than two years. He and other members do household tasks they choose and like to do, have social interactions with other members, and have meetings and activities focused on mental health recovery.
Clubhouses are community mental health services where people with a history of mental illness can find opportunities for work, wellness, and socialization. The Clubhouse model focuses on finding people’s strengths and abilities; Clubhouse staff will ask members: “What’s right with you?” to find out members’ interests and abilities. Clubhouses also help members get back into the workforce—nearly 42% of Clubhouse members are employed.
Mr. Harney, who experienced what he described as a “nervous breakdown,” said that Clubhouse members can avoid feeling like “stereotypical mental illness [patients],” since Clubhouse gives him a “purpose” and a sense that he’s a member of a community.
A Veteran Community Partnership (VCP) in Indianapolis is helping provide Veterans like Mr. Harney an option for treatment to “enhance their social network and give them an opportunity to use their knowledge in a new environment,” said Mr. Jason Riddle, a social worker and co-chair of the Indianapolis VCP.
VCPs are collaborations—and each is part of the larger VHA VCP initiative—that bring together community leaders, some of whom are Veterans, and organizations with VAMC programs to help Veterans access health care and supportive services at VA and beyond. The VCP initiative is a joint project of the VHA Geriatrics and Extended Care, National Center for Healthcare Advancement and Partnerships (HAP), and other VHA offices. VHA plans to have a VCP at each of the VAMCs by September 2024.
Mr. Riddle said that the Indianapolis VCP is working closely with Clubhouses in the area to engage more Veterans, but the VCP also wants to link each local VA with a local Clubhouse. The VCP aims to continue to “engage more with our communities,” Mr. Riddle said.
In the end, that’s good for Veterans like Mr. Harney, who said that the social interaction he gets at Clubhouse helps him be more open and conversational with his providers. The members at Clubhouse are in a “chipper mood,” he said, and he can interact with his health care providers with that same attitude.
“We’re all friends who work here,” he said. “This is a wonderful place to be.”
To find a Clubhouse in your area, visit: clubhouse-intl.org/what-we-do/international-directory.
To become a VA point of contact to a local Clubhouse, visit: VISN 5 MIRECC - Connecting Veterans to Community Care: VA/Clubhouse Points of Contact - MIRECC / CoE.
To learn more about how to establish a VCP, visit va.gov/healthpartnerships/vcp.asp.
To learn more about HAP’s other partnerships, visit va.gov/healthpartnerships/updates.asp.
External Link Disclaimer: This page contains links that will take you outside of the Department of Veterans Affairs website. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked websites.
Posted August 31, 2021
