Perspectives on the Standards

This Standard directs us to engage each other in meaningful work, and not get caught up in fretting about sickness and disease. For work to engage colleagues, it must be necessary for the well-being of our community (not busy work). But our definition of work need not be excessively narrow. The projects at clubhouses are complex enough to draw on the talents of, for example, members who paint and sweep and can care for plants and mop the floors and type and write. To generate this sort of work, our clubhouse community must always remain open to defining new needs. The clubhouse colleagues must always search for new and exciting challenges for the clubhouse community to work on. If a clubhouse decides not to expand, not to reach out to the wider world, that clubhouse will die.

All members have strengths, talents and abilities, but many times we have not been challenged to use them—and have not been supported to endure the stress of achievement. Clubhouse life is not only designed to challenge us, but to support and encourage us. Yet the support we get from our clubhouses is not administered by specialist experts in sterile wards, but flows from the real need to sustain our community, and the demands of a work-ordered day with real consequences.

Colleagues may seek therapy and treatment elsewhere, and often we encourage each other to do so. But refusing therapy is not, in itself, a reason for denying colleagues access to the clubhouse. At its best, the clubhouse erases the distinction between members and staff, and we become colleagues working together.