Mental Health Writings: Clarification--My Very Last Communication to the Circle City Clubhouse

 On Monday, July 15, 2024, I inquired of the status of my "Open Letter to the Members and Staff of the Circle City Clubhouse," which I had hoped would be circulated and commented on, even though it was highly critical; deservedly so, in my opinion.  My phone call was transferred to Jay Brubaker, the Executive Director, who claimed he didn't respond to "personal insult," and then abruptly, most rudely, hung up.  This inspired me to send this very last "Clarification" to the Circle City Clubhouse, which I will no longer communicate with.  As I state, I do not mean to "personally insult" anyone, but I consider Brubaker an utter incompetent, the "professional staff" (all of whom have college degrees) a passive bunch of glorified babysitters willing to accept really paltry wages, and the fellow mental health consumers at the Clubhouse taken for a ride, and they don't even know it.  I'm far too busy in my actual mental health recovery to bother with the Circle City Clubhouse anymore.  Although I would like to tell Clubhouse International, the national governing body of Clubhouses in the US, that Circle City desperately needs to be dis-accredited for being not a place for mental health recovery, but a warehouse where mental health consumers stagnate instead--GF 

It is indeed a shame that the Clubhouse did not see fit to circulate my "Open Letter," and to thus regard me as a second-class member, even though I'm supposedly equal to any other member, which I'm obviously regarded as not.  Recalls, of course, Orwell's "Some are more equal than others," needless to say.  But, while I don't mean this at all as a "personal insult," I do have to say that I have known Jay Brubaker since the beginning of 2016, a good 8 1/2 years now, and regard him as an incompetent and ineffective Executive Director, who has made the Clubhouse not a place for mental health recovery, but a mere warehouse and rest lounge for those not recovered who are denied the tools for recovery by the same Clubhouse, through its inadequate programs, lack of programs, and a "professional staff" that is nothing more than extremely underpaid glorified baby-sitters.  What does the Clubhouse pay its staff now, all of whom are required to have college degrees?  Undoubtedly less than what I make at my job, which requires only a high school diploma, and sometimes not even that, even though I have, of course, a college degree myself (bachelor's in economics, Indiana U.-Bloomington).  But I make $17.60 an hour for doing physically challenging blue-collar mindless menial work--yes, mindless menial work, same as the Clubhouse "provides" in its "work-oriented" program, only with the Clubhouse members required to do so for free!  $17.60/hr., or $704.00/week, vs. free.  And do "professional staff" even make $15.00/hr.?  I doubt it.  When the unlamented Scott worked there, I asked him what he made, and from the info he gave me, deduced he made only $11.50/hr.  The last time I made less than $12.00/hr. at my job was prior to October 2015!  And because of union contact, I'm guaranteed annual wage increases, so that my pay at my job has increased well over 60% since I've been there!  (By the way, to the staff I'd like to say, as an active and staunch trade unionist, "Why do you allow yourself to be demeaned by working for such wages?  Have you no gumption?")  As for mental health recovery, I've completely recovered and live an active "normal" life with a supportive friendship network, a nice apartment where I live without the burden of roommates, own my own car, actively participate in the community and have a social life, and do what I treasure most, continue to write, read, and be intellectually and aesthetically creative!  None, absolutely none, of that was due to the Clubhouse in any way.  The Clubhouse, far from being a community of supportive fellow mental health consumers for me, was exactly its opposite, and is now disapproved of by both my former psychotherapists (I've successfully completed psychotherapy, which was most helpful and enabling), and by my friends network, all of whom had hoped that in the Clubhouse I would find the supportive mental health community I deserved.  It is anger at my disappointing experiences with the Clubhouse that drives me to criticize it, as my fellow mental health consumers definitely deserve better than what they get (or mor accurately, don't get, which is so overwhelmingly much) from the Circle City Clubhouse! 

So I say not "Adieu" but "Good Riddance!"  However, as one last involvement, I would like to speak to the representatives of Clubhouse International when Circle City Clubhouse comes up for re-accreditation.

Cheers!

George Fish