The mental illness-mental wellness struggle and the taking of responsibility: Observations in the Clubhouse setting

TL;DRAbstract

Persons who are labeled mentally ill and attempting to live in the community are the focus of this study. The two Clubhouses studied functioned as a support system for consumers known as "members". The settings followed the Fountain House international model in existence since 1948. In the Clubhouse the members take active responsibility in Work Units to assist in maintaining the organization. It is their struggle with mental illness and the climb toward higher levels of what I have conceptualized as "mental wellness" which emerged as a central issue in this manuscript. The two primary questions around which the dissertation is organized are: (1) Do people labeled mentally ill go through varying levels of mental wellness as they take increasing responsibility for themselves and others? (2) Do people living with the mental illness label tend to be more constrained by others in society than is necessary in the taking of responsibility? The members experiences suggest the difficulty in ac

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper