Community Peer support in Hyannis Clubhouse offers growth, security to those with mental illness

The best kind of club is one in which members support each other, enjoy each other’s company, feel a sense of belonging and better enjoy the larger world coming from the security of their club. That’s the dynamic at Baybridge Clubhouse, which serves about 115 people who are all dealing with some type of mental health issue.

Located on Main Street in Hyannis, Baybridge is one of seven such clubhouses (five of them off-Cape) operated by Vinfen, an agency that provides an array of services for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities, brain injury and mental illness.

Baybridge Director Scott Conroy said diagnoses among members include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. The program is funded by the state Department of Mental Health, and also supplements its budget with fundraisers by a friends group.

“Our primary goals are employment, education, life skills, social and recreation opportunities, housing and outreach to individuals who tend to isolate,” said Conroy.

The central operating tenet in the clubhouse model is that it is largely run by members.

“All of the members contribute to running the clubhouse,” Conroy said. “It’s their space.”

Members work to clean and maintain the clubhouse, answer phones, prepare and serve lunch daily and create artwork to sell. Many also have jobs outside the clubhouse, and one employer is the Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, for which Baybridge members make up the “Clean Team.”

Clean Team members work up and down Main Street daily to pick up litter, sweep sidewalks, rake leaves, tend flowerpots and put up seasonal decorations.

John Briggs said he enjoys the work, as it gives him a sense of purpose. “You have to put your heart and soul into it,” he said. “It’s healthy to work.”

“It’s exercise and fresh air and it makes me feel good that I can help the community,” said fellow Clean Team member Maureen Monroe. “A lot of people thank me.”

“You meet some really nice people, and we get nice comments,” Briggs said. “They appreciate what we do.”

Matt Tinti, operating director for the Hyannis Main Street BID, oversees and coordinates the Clean Team. “It can be challenging,” he said, but it works well. “It’s a huge help for Main Street.”

Dan Gray, operating director for Vinfen on Cape Cod, said employment is an important part of the clubhouse model, which dates to 1948 when the first clubhouse opened in New York City. Members find purpose and a sense of worth through working, but equally important, it makes them part of the community. That helps overcome the stigma and misconceptions that still surround mental illness in our society, Gray said.

“People with mental illness are thought of as being on the outskirts of society,” he said, adding that many people have the mistaken belief that people with mental illness are violent. “In actuality, people with mental illness are less likely to be violent.”

In Hyannis, where the issue of homelessness reached a head this summer, Baybridge members have at times been confused with homeless people, to the point where one Baybridge member felt compelled to attend a meeting of the Barnstable Town Council to ask town officials and the public “not to lump mentally ill people” in with homeless people.

“We’ve been struggling with that distinction since I got here,” Gray said.

Housing is part of Vinfen’s mission, and Baybridge works closely with the Housing Assistance Corporation, the Barnstable Housing Authority and other groups to ensure members have a place to live.

Conroy said the Barnstable Police Department’s Community Impact Unit, which is designed to deal with the homeless population in Hyannis, has been helpful in protecting Baybridge members.

“They support us in more of an empathetic approach, with safety and security,” he said. “They sort of look out for them.”

To help members stay safe, “We bring in the police department to talk about the dangers of people preying on them,” Conroy said. “We try to get them off the street before dark, and we hold money for them and record it” to reduce the risk of members being robbed or talked into giving money away.

But in keeping with the clubhouse models, members “police the place themselves,” Conroy said. “They’ll say to someone, ‘You’re not a member,’ and tell them to leave. The members really are on the front line.”

While some members continue to rely on Baybridge day-to-day, others have moved through recovery and maintain full lives outside the clubhouse – and yet still maintain some involvement.

“We have clubhouse members on the staff of state senators, members who are returning to college,” Gray said. “The club has played a tremendous role in their lives… Research on recovery shows when people are not shut away they have a better chance.”

“It’s peer to peer support,” Conroy said. “And it’s educating the public. We’re trying to give individuals a voice.”