Recovery in Action: CLR Drop-In Center

The Josselyn Center’s commitment to providing excellent mental health services includes a dedication to the concept of client-centered and client-driven recovery.  For this reason, we provide a wide range of services and programs to our clients in addition to individual psychotherapy, case management, and psychiatric services.  One of our newest and most exciting offerings is the CLR Drop-In Center. 

 

The CLR Drop-In Center is designed as a place where adults at any stage in the mental health recovery process can engage in loosely-structured social and recreational activities with other adults who aren’t their family members, therapists, or caretakers.  For many, this type of social experience is virtually non-existent outside of a highly-structured therapeutic environment.  As more evidence emerges, it is becoming clear that, for many people, achieving a lasting and meaningful recovery necessarily entails creating a treatment plan that strives to support all aspects of a client’s life, including the social and recreational aspects. 

 

The CLR Drop-In Center was made possible by a generous grant provided by former Josselyn Center Board member and current Honorary Trustee, Gene Rintels, who envisioned a place where adults with mental illness or emotional difficulties can simply come to relax and enjoy themselves with other adults.  Mr. Rintels’ hope is that this opportunity for social engagement will help participants feel less isolated, more confident, and more ready to take on increasingly active roles in society.  With renewed self-confidence and the social and emotional strength that the community of the CLR Drop-In Center provides, participants can begin to tackle some of life’s challenges with new energy and optimism and hopefully begin to get on the path to recovery.  

One of the Center’s activity leaders, Leilani Witt, reflects: “The trend in mental health treatment is to have consumers and their families take more responsibility for their own recovery.  The idea is that no one knows better than the consumer how their own recovery should look and what motivates them. The way the CLR Drop-In addresses this philosophy is that it is an independent, consumer-driven place where people have an opportunity to learn about themselves and others and to work on their recovery without the direction of their therapist.”

 

As Leilani puts it, “Individuals who visit the center are not facilitated by a therapeutic leader, but instead determine on their own what they want to do and with whom.  Members run the place themselves and are responsible for their own successful use of the facility.”  This sense of ownership and responsibility for one’s own treatment and activities is a key element in recovery. 

 

While the center is staffed by trained clinicians, the unique social atmosphere facilitates personal emotional growth and development through non-clinical activities such as arts and crafts, story-telling, open-microphone nights, group meals, and more.  Participants feel a sense of community and sharing that builds the self-confidence and self-esteem that can often be diminished due to the challenges adults with mental illness or emotional difficulties face on a daily basis.  Likewise, as participants become more socially confident, the center can provide the opportunity for them to begin building the educational and vocational skills that will further help them feel less isolated from society. 

 

The hope that inspired the CLR Drop-In Center’s creation is quickly proving itself to be a reality.  In the short time since the center has been open, a growing number of participants have become very active in the community that has developed.  Mr. Rintels has visited the center several times since it opened last May and remarks, “I’m ecstatic with the interest and growth in the Center, and I’m extremely happy that we are  able to meet this urgent need in the community. It’s a great pleasure to see what has been just a dream for many years turn into such a successful reality.”