Persons with mental illness struggle daily to overcome their illnesses that relentlessly attack the mind. In efforts to revolutionize mental health treatment, psychologists and doctors have attempted to go beyond symptom reduction. One such method is the Clubhouse Model of psychosocial rehabilitation that welcomes persons with severe mental illness into a socially supportive environment and involves them in meaningful and productive work (Doyle, Lanoil & Dudek, 2013). The Clubhouse Model works: its members report greater feelings of functionality, autonomy, and happiness (Tanaka & Davidson, 2015). However, it is not yet clear how exactly the Clubhouse Model is so effective. The current proposed study will apply the psychology phenomena of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) to the Clubhouse Model’s core structure, its work-ordered day. This proposed study will collect data on Clubhouse members’ experience in three activities: the work-ordered day, free time, and therapy to determine if they are ever in a state of flow. The proposal will collect the data over a six-month period using the Experience Sampling Method (Hektner, Schmidt & Csikszentmihalyi, 2007). Additionally, the proposal will collect longitudinal data of the members’ quality of life (QoL) to determine if members’ QoL increase due to their Clubhouse membership. The proposal’s first hypothesis is that members will experience greater levels of flow during the activities of the work-ordered day over their free time and therapy. The proposal’s second hypothesis is that by experiencing flow, Clubhouse members will experience greater levels of QoL.

The aim of the present master thesis was to explore which experiences members at a Swedish clubhouse for psychosocial rehabilitation describe as important in their recovery process and for their (re)entrance in the labor market, and more specifically if and how they consider the clubhouse helpful in this process. With an inductive approach, six qualitative interviews with clubhouse members who had moved on from the clubhouse to employment in the labor market were carried out and analyzed through thematic analysis. The interviewees described helpful aspects of the clubhouse within five themes: A place to go to, Something sensible to do, Community and friendship, To recapture one's identity, and Moves on (but stays a member). These five themes illustrate different aspects of the overarching theme Individuality through community. The way the clubhouse was described as helpful in the interviews was further discussed in relation to common factors within all helpful interventions, Frank and Frank’s concept of demoralization, and the reconstruction of the sense of self according to Davidson and Strauss. In the present study, the clubhouse is described as a place where recovery from psychiatric problems can be supported.

The aim of this study was to examine how social work can be organized to promote individual`s right to participate in decisions that affect them, in the context of a current social policy state. The selection of participants was goal-oriented and based on individuals who are members of TOP Clubhouse in New York City. They are currently negatively affected by the newly issued social policy directives. Through six qualitative semi-structured interviews based upon research questions, I sought answers to how the clubhouse equips its members to take an active role against the new directives and what role in advocacy work the members considered themselves to have compared to staff. The results of the study show that the clubhouse model strength-based, relational and equal approach has a positive impact on individuals' right and willingness to participate in decisions that affect them. The results show that the clubhouse model promotes empowerment on both individual and political levels. Further the results illustrate that clubhouse members who experience high levels of individual empowerment tend to take a more active role in activist work at a political level. Furthermore, the results show that the relational base of the clubhouse contributes to a collective sense of empowerment at the political level, based on togetherness and solidarity, the clubhouse members organize themselves against the social policy directives. The staff take on two roles in the activist work, first a motivational and insight-creating role where staff contribute with motivation for the clubhouse members to organize against decisions that affect them negatively. The second role is “cause advocacy work”, where the study's results demonstrate how staff remove, through their power, structural obstacles in order for clubhouse members to have their voices heard in decisions that affect them. In conclusion, the study shows how a strengths-based practice can equip both individuals and groups with empowerment at an individual and political level, and how social work in this way promotes individuals' rights to participate in decisions that affect them. / Syftet med denna studie var, att ur en aktuell socialpolitisk kontext, undersöka hur socialt arbete kan organiseras för att främja individers rätt till deltagande i beslut som rör dem. Urvalet har varit målstyrt och vänt sig till individer som är medlemmar på TOP Clubhouse i New York City, och som just nu påverkas negativt av nytillkomna socialpolitiska krav. Genom frågeställningar sökte jag svar på hur klubbhuset utrustar sina medlemmar till att inta en aktiv roll emot de nytillkomna kraven samt vilken roll medlemmarna ansåg sig besitta jämfört med personalen i det aktivistiska arbetet. Studien bygger på sex stycken kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer där resultat visar att klubbhusmodellens styrkebaserade, relationella och jämlika modell har en positiv inverkan på individers rätt och vilja till att delta i beslut som rör dem. Resultatet visar att klubbhuset bidragit till skapandet av empowerment både på individ och politisk nivå. Klubbhusmedlemmar som upplever hög grad av individuell empowerment tenderar till att inta en mer aktiv roll i det aktivistiska arbetet, och förmår att organisera sig på politisk nivå. Vidare visar resultatet att klubbhusets relationella bas bidrar till ett kollektivt skapande av empowerment på politisk nivå, grundad på samhörighet och solidaritet organiserar sig klubbhusmedlemmarna emot de socialpolitiska direktiven. Personalens intar två roller i det aktivistiska arbetet, en motivations- och insiktsskapande roll där personalen bidrar till att klubbhusmedlemmarna vill organisera sig emot förändringar som påverka dem negativt. Den andra rollen berör ställföreträdarskap där studiens resultat visar hur personalen undanröjer strukturella hinder för att klubbhusmedlemmarna på olika vis ska få sina röster hörda i beslut som rör dem. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien hur en styrkebaserad praktik kan utrusta både individer och grupper med empowerment på individ- och politisk nivå, och hur de genom det kan få sin rätt till deltagande i beslut som rör dem beaktad.