E152 - Fountain House: Destigmatizing Serious Mental Illness

How did Fountain House come to be? What is the history behind it? What does it mean to be a Fountain House member? In this fascinating podcast, we hear from three experts who work with Fountain House to reduce stigma for people with serious mental illness, improve education, foster a community and provide resources for members of Fountain House to thrive and live fulfilling lives.

Fountain House is a national mental health nonprofit fighting to improve health, increase opportunity, and end social and economic isolation for people impacted by mental illness. Drawing on more than 200 community-based social rehabilitative programs inspired by Fountain House and known as clubhouses - to reflect an insistence on belonging and acceptance - in nearly 40 states and with more than 60,000 members, they are leading a national movement for the dignity and rights of people with serious mental illness.

Jeanie Tse, MD is the Senior Medical Director at Fountain House and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. She brings to Fountain House her expertise in integrated health care for people with serious mental illnesses, developed in the course of her work as the former Chief Medical Officer at the Institute for Community Living. She has a special interest in disrupting the impact of trauma on health outcomes, with an overarching aim to “bridge the gap” between academic psychiatry and the clinical challenges of under-resourced communities.

 Francesca Pernice, PhD is an associate professor in Educational Psychology and Director of Counseling Psychology at Wayne University's College of Education. Her areas of expertise include social and interpersonal relationships, clubhouse community recovery programs, recovery from serious mental illness, and research in mental health, and program evaluation. She instructs graduate courses in the area of adult psychopathology, ethics, and educational psychology. She serves as advisor for PhD students in the School Psychology PhD Concentration and Learning and Instructional Sciences PhD concentration within the department of Educational Psychology. Her areas of expertise include family psychoeducation about serious mental illness, and research of psychiatric rehabilitation programs known as Fountain House Clubhouses.

Cyrus Daniel Napolitano is a member of Fountain House who has served on their Board of Directors, the Council, a think-tank that focuses on innovation, training, education, research, public policy, advocacy, and technology. He is currently Co-Director of the Clubhouse New York Coalition that represents 14 clubhouses in NYC and in New Jersey. He is also working to foster the development of community-based mental health programs in low- to middle-income countries. 

Fountain House website: https://www.fountainhouse.org/