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The Fairweather Lodge Program is a psychosocial rehabilitation model in which residents live together and run or participate in a business that provides them with employment. As of 2006, there were over 90 Fairweather Lodges in 16 US states.
The Fairweather Lodge Program was developed by psychologist George Fairweather in California in 1963. [1] Fairweather found that patients with serious and persistent mental illness were less likely to require rehospitalization (i.e., "community tenure" is longer)when they lived and worked together in the community as a group, rather than individually.
A “Fairweather Lodge” is a home that offers support for adults with mental illness. The Lodge setting is shared, independent housing and can be offered either short-term or long-term, depending on the needs and desires of the individual. Lodge members are active, productive men and women who share the responsibilities of household management and support each other in recovery. This interdependence relies on the skills and competencies of each individual and utilizes them to create a family style of living. By residing together, each member's potential standard of living can be greatly improved through companionship, shared expenses and mutual peer support. A Lodge managed by its members through group decision-making. While staff, provided by a sponsoring agency, may serve as advisors and be available in emergencies, on-site staffing is very limited. The Fairweather Lodge model also includes an employment component, with the understanding that participation in gainful employment supports mental health recovery. To provide employment, a Lodge may run a small business chosen by member consensus and jointly planned. Alternatively, the sponsoring agency may provide employment to Lodge residents through its own business initiatives.
1. The lodge must provide the residents a safe, healthy and caring environment that reinforces the recovery process.
2. The lodge must be a part of the overall plan for managing the residents' mental health symptoms and promoting good mental health.
3. The sponsor must provide services to the residents as long as they want and need them. The lodge must allow open entry and exit for the residents.
4. Residents with psychiatric disabilities can increase their community success and raise their social status through employment, through accumulating wealth and through direct consumerism.
5. Aside from their roles in the lodge business, residents need to have meaningful roles in the larger community.
6. A successful lodge resembles a family.
7. In order to progress, residents with psychiatric disabilities need autonomy that is commensurate with their abilities with the ultimate goal is full autonomy. The lodge must provide its residents with as much autonomy as possible.
8. The lodge must not depend on resources from any single entity, or on the philanthropy of its host community.
The Coalition for Community Living (CCL) is a national organization that promotes the Fairweather Lodge model and monitors the lodge programs.
Each quarter, the CCL collects outcome data on each lodge to determine if it can be certified as a Fairweather Lodge. The outcome measures gauge adherence to the Faiweather principles and are designed to track meaningful quality of life indicators, such as safety and desirability of housing, access to quality mental health services, employment and earnings, healthy lifestyle and community belonging and personal autonomy.
Occupational therapists (OTs) are health care professionals specializing in occupational therapy and occupational science. OTs and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs) use scientific bases and a holistic perspective to promote a person's ability to fulfill their daily routines and roles. OTs have training in the physical, psychological, and social aspects of human functioning deriving from an education grounded in anatomical and physiological concepts, and psychological perspectives. They enable individuals across the lifespan by optimizing their abilities to perform activities that are meaningful to them ("occupations"). Human occupations include activities of daily living, work/vocation, play, education, leisure, rest and sleep, and social participation.
Occupational therapy (OT) is a healthcare profession that involves the use of assessment and intervention to develop, recover, or maintain the meaningful activities, or occupations, of individuals, groups, or communities. The field of OT consists of health care practitioners trained and educated to improve mental and physical performance. Occupational therapists specialize in teaching, educating, and supporting participation in any activity that occupies an individual's time. It is an independent health profession sometimes categorized as an allied health profession and consists of occupational therapists (OTs) and occupational therapy assistants (OTAs). While OTs and OTAs have different roles, they both work with people who want to improve their mental and or physical health, disabilities, injuries, or impairments.
A halfway house is an institute for people with criminal backgrounds or substance use problems to learn the necessary skills to re-integrate into society and better support and care for themselves.
Supportive housing is a combination of housing and services intended as a cost-effective way to help people live more stable, productive lives, and is an active "community services and funding" stream across the United States. It was developed by different professional academics and US governmental departments that supported housing. Supportive housing is widely believed to work well for those who face the most complex challenges—individuals and families confronted with homelessness and who also have very low incomes and/or serious, persistent issues that may include substance use disorders, mental health, HIV/AIDS, chronic illness, diverse disabilities or other serious challenges to stable housing.
In November 2004, voters in the U.S. state of California passed Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which has been designed to expand and transform California's county mental health service systems. The MHSA is funded by imposing an additional one percent tax on individual, but not corporate, taxable income in excess of one million dollars. In becoming law in January 2005, the MHSA represents the latest in a Californian legislative movement, begun in the 1990s, to provide better coordinated and more comprehensive care to those with serious mental illness, particularly in underserved populations. Its claim of successes thus far, such as with the development of innovative and integrated Full Service Partnerships (FSPs), are not without detractors who highlight many problems but especially a lack of oversight, large amount of unspent funds, poor transparency, lack of engagement in some communities, and a lack of adherence to required reporting as challenges MHSA implementation must overcome to fulfill the law's widely touted potential.
Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters, and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, reflective listening, or counseling. Peer support is also used to refer to initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help organizations and others meet, in person or online, as equals to give each other connection and support on a reciprocal basis.
A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a name for community personnel who worked in the new community mental health agencies begun in the 1970s to assist individuals moving from state hospitals, to prevent admissions, and to provide support in homes, jobs, education, and community. These individuals were the forefront brigade to develop the community programs, which today may be referred to by names such as supported housing, psychiatric rehabilitation, supported or transitional employment, sheltered workshops, supported education, daily living skills, affirmative industries, dual diagnosis treatment, individual and family psychoeducation, adult day care, foster care, family services and mental health counseling.
A group home, congregate living facility, care home, adult family home, etc., is a structured and supervised residence model that provides assisted living and medical care for those with complex health needs. Traditionally, the model has been used for children or young people who cannot live with their families or afford their own homes, people with chronic disabilities who may be adults or seniors, or people with dementia and related aged illnesses. Typically, there are no more than six residents, and there is at least one trained caregiver there 24 hours a day. In some early "model programs", a house manager, night manager, weekend activity coordinator, and four part-time skill teachers were reported. Originally, the term group home referred to homes of 8 to 16 individuals, which was a state-mandated size during deinstitutionalization. Residential nursing facilities, also included in this article, may be as large as 100 individuals in 2015, which is no longer the case in fields such as intellectual and developmental disabilities. Depending on the severity of the condition requiring one to need to live in a group home, some clients are able to attend day programs and most clients are able to live normal lifestyles.
Psychiatric rehabilitation, also known as psychosocial rehabilitation, and sometimes simplified to psych rehab by providers, is the process of restoration of community functioning and well-being of an individual diagnosed in mental health or emotional disorder and who may be considered to have a psychiatric disability.
The recovery model, recovery approach or psychological recovery is an approach to mental disorder or substance dependence that emphasizes and supports a person's potential for recovery. Recovery is generally seen in this model as a personal journey rather than a set outcome, and one that may involve developing hope, a secure base and sense of self, supportive relationships, empowerment, social inclusion, coping skills, and meaning. Recovery sees symptoms as a continuum of the norm rather than an aberration and rejects sane-insane dichotomy.
Endeavors, formerly known as Family Endeavors, is a non-profit organization that provides programs and services towards community, disaster relief, employment, housing, mental health, and veteran family services in the United States.
Supported employment refers to service provisions wherein people with disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, mental health, and traumatic brain injury, among others, are assisted with obtaining and maintaining employment. Supported employment is considered to be one form of employment in which wages are expected, together with benefits from an employer in a competitive workplace, though some versions refer to disability agency paid employment. Companies such as Skilcraft in the United States are an example of "supported employment" which is defined in law for state and federal reimbursements.
Services for mental health disorders provide treatment, support, or advocacy to people who have psychiatric illnesses. These may include medical, behavioral, social, and legal services.
Patricia E. Deegan is an American disability-rights advocate, psychologist and researcher. She has been described as a "national spokesperson for the mental health consumer/survivor movement in the United States." Deegan is known as an advocate of the mental health recovery movement and is an international speaker and trainer in the field of mental health.
Rise provides microfinancing and mentorship to eligible entrepreneurs living with mental health and addiction challenges, who are interested in pursuing self-employment. Rise offers business financing in the form of loans, leases and other investments, based on stage of development, needs and capacity. Rise provides business financing for up to $25,000 throughout Ontario, with an average loan of $3,000 to $5,000. The Rotman School of Management and Centre for Addiction and Mental Health participate in advisory functions, lending their respective expertise for business mentoring and mental health support and services for the benefit of Rise clients. In January 2012, Rise received the Social Entrepreneurship in Mental Health Equity Award from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation Canada (DMRFC).
Conard House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the SoMa arts district of San Francisco, working to support adults living with serious mental health and medical conditions. The organization's restated mission is "to empower people who live and work on the margins of society."
IPS Supported Employment is an evidence-based approach to supported employment for people who have a mental illness. IPS stands for Individual Placement and Support. IPS supports people in their efforts to achieve steady, meaningful employment in mainstream competitive jobs, either part-time or full-time. This stands in contrast to other vocational rehabilitation approaches that employ people in sheltered workshops and other set-aside jobs.
Community integration, while diversely defined, is a term encompassing the full participation of all people in community life. It has specifically referred to the integration of people with disabilities into US society from the local to the national level, and for decades was a defining agenda in countries such as Great Britain. Throughout recent decades, community integration programs have been increasingly effective in improving healthcare access for people with disabilities. They have been valued for providing a "voice for the voiceless"
The California Department of Rehabilitation (DOR) is a California state department which administers vocational rehabilitation services. It provides vocational rehabilitation services and advocacy from over 100 locations throughout California seeking employment, independence, and equality for individuals with disabilities. The DOR was established on October 1, 1963.
As of 2017, approximately 1.4 million Americans live in a nursing home, two-thirds of whom rely on Medicaid to pay for their care. Residential nursing facilities receive Medicaid federal funding and approvals through a state health department. These facilities may be overseen by various types of state agency.