CLEVELAND, Ohio — About one in 25 U.S. adults live with a severe mental illness, which means most of us know someone or have a loved one who struggles with it.
That's one of the reasons I've been keeping up with Magnolia Clubhouse.
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It helps people with mental illness learn to cope and live their best lives.
Michael Hamlin is one of many success stories.
At one of his lowest moments in life, Hamlin found himself kicked out of college and homeless.
"I was really struggling for a long time with my mental health. I kind of always thought of myself as like a loner and someone who really didn't need community," said Hamlin.
After living on the streets of New York City for a couple of months, the Akron native learned about Fountain House.
"The whole kind of path of my journey of my life at the time was completely changed," said Hamlin.
The nonprofit's mission is to use a community to transform mental illness recovery.
"And that's what we talk a lot about in the clubhouse, tapping into this universal need to be needed and having purpose and meaning," said Hamlin.
Fountain House, which has been around since the 1940s, was the blueprint used to create Magnolia Clubhouse in Cleveland.
"It's really a peer driven model that partners with professionals. Clubhouses have been a proven model that can provide that important support piece and connect with important services like employment, housing, education," said James Weininger, Magnolia Clubhouse.
I first highlighted the work happening at Magnolia Clubhouse in March of 2022.
Quite a bit has changed since then in terms of demand.
“So, when you came, we were on average having about 65 people a day," said Lori D'Angelo, Executive Magnolia Clubhouse.
That number is now up to 85.
But that's a small drop in the bucket compared to those in need of support.
"If we had 10,000 people in a community, about 800 of them would have severe mental illness and benefit from a resource like this," said D’Angelo.
There’s an expansion plan in the works to try and meet a surge in demand and divert patients away from expensive alternative care.
“A year at the clubhouse costs less than a week at the hospital," said D’Angelo.
Magnolia Clubhouse is in the middle of a capital campaign to connect its two existing buildings and increase its member capacity by 50%.
"I think we are up to about a $5 million project total. So, we're more than halfway there," said James Weininger.
It's an investment Hamlin tells me can change lives and he's proof.
"I was able to go back to school and get a degree," said Hamlin.
Hamlin is using his degree in sociology to help those living with severe mental illness in a full circle moment as a member of the Magnolia Clubhouse staff.
"To like, hear the struggles that other people are having and to offer insight and help with that is, yeah, that's been really beneficial. That's what helps me stay balanced now, is being able to do that good work for people,” said Hamlin.
Over the last few years, there have been a handful of new clubhouses that have come online across Ohio.
However, out of the state's 88 counties there are only eight of them.
The goal would be to have one in each county to help a growing population with severe mental illness.
