The state of Texas has contracts with seven clubhouse programs that are located in Richmond, Austin, Plano, Dallas-Fort Worth, Richardson, Houston, and San Antonio.When Jonathan Denhart was discharged from the psych ward at Austin Oaks Hospital last year, he was prepared to be back very soon.
Today, Denhart has been sober for more than a year and works in the snack bar for around six hours a day at Austin Clubhouse, passing out coffee and snacks. He said the work has given him a renewed sense of purpose in life that had been missing.“I like what I see when I look in the mirror now,” he said. “Instead of self-doubt and hatred, I feel happiness. It’s not easy, and I still have days that are hard, but I am happy now.
During the fiscal year that ended in August 2023, the program had only facilitated the transition of 23 people from state hospitals, most of them people waiting to have their competency restored to stand trial in a criminal case. “I came from an Islamic, fundamentalist, tribalistic society to a socialist, free society. I finally had freedom,” he said. “I was able to drink and have friendships with women. I gained freedom and forgot my aim of struggling for my nation.”
“I felt like a parasite,” Badini said. “Alcohol took my abilities. I didn’t want to look at myself anymore.” Soon after leaving the hospital, they began meeting on the steps of the New York City Public Library to recreate the “club room” experience, believing that it would sustain their recovery and provide a mutual support system. This eventually led to them purchasing their own building, the Fountain House, which was initially staffed and operated solely by ex-psychiatric patients and volunteers.
Then, one day last summer, Johnson-Carson toured Austin Clubhouse and found the community she had been looking for all this time. The Austin Clubhouse offers programs in employment, education, housing, and health and wellness. It doesn’t offer mental health treatment because they are an add-on to clinical assistance, not a replacement.
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