Mentally ill get help to regain jobs

ST. LOUIS -- Van Ingram, diagnosed with schizophrenia and major depression, hadn't worked in 18 years when he volunteered to sweep floors in 2005.

The job was nothing short of a major victory for Ingram, a former lifeguard, and a testament to the success of the Independence Center, a St. Louis day program for the mentally ill.

Ingram, 44, of St. Louis sat in the center's new digs recently and recounted how his mental illness hit him hard. At his lowest point, "I didn't want to venture out," he said. "I didn't want to go to church. I didn't want to go nowhere.

"I was kind of hearing voices and reading the paper or looking at the television and I thought it was about me," he said. "I thought it was safer staying at home."

The Independence Center, which hosted a grand opening recently for its new $5 million center, has been helping people such as Ingram for 27 years.

The Independence Center operates on a model called a "clubhouse," and the adults who participate are its "members."

The idea of the clubhouse is to provide an environment as unlike a mental hospital as possible for its members. The St. Louis center, with an active membership of 700, is the second-largest clubhouse model in the world, second only to the original one, the Fountain House in New York, said Ralph Bilby of the New York-based International Center for Clubhouse Development.

At the Independence Center's new West End Place on Forest Park Avenue, 50,000 square feet sprawl across three floors. Sunlight streams in. The high ceilings, open workspace, exposed brick and factory casement windows give it the feel of a loft, or a big-city ad agency. The members had a hand in its design, down to selecting colors for the walls and the elegant Tuscan-look floors.

Members must be at least 18 and have a chronic mental illness, such as schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder or major depression. They become members on their third visit. They can work out in the gym, eat lunch, get help with schooling, open an account with the clubhouse's bank and find part-time jobs. Membership is free and for life.

It's hard to distinguish the staff from the members, and the open space is shared space there's no differentiation between where one or the other can go, said Jennifer Higginbotham, a social worker who is the center's assistant director.

Members and staff work side by side at the clubhouse bank and cafe and kitchen. Those jobs are training grounds, allowing confidence to return.

That's what happened to Ingram, whose confidence returned little by little after sweeping floors at the center. Early this year, he was ready for a paid job. He now works as a janitor at a clinic in St. Louis four hours a day, three days a week.

Without the clubhouse, "it'd be pretty rough," Ingram said. "It adds structure to my day. Otherwise, I'd be at home, staring at the four corners of the walls."