Co-Authors: Janay Christian M.A., Jessica Drews, M.A., Liza Hinchey, M.A., Amber Michon B.A., Megan Price M.A., Francesca Pernice, Ph.D.*, Vivian Truong​​​

2. Global Pandemic Response: The
Effectiveness and Well-being of
Clubhouse Communities Moving Virtual.
Janay Christian M.A.,Jessica Drews,M.A., Liza Hinchey,M.A., Amber Michon B.A., MeganPrice
M.A., Francesca Pernice,Ph.D.*, Vivian Truong
Departmentof Counseling Psychology

3. • Clubhouses: physical recovery spaces for individuals living
with Serious and Persistent Mental Illness (SPMI)
• Covid-19 and closure
• The conversion of physical to virtual platforms
• Member engagement vs. physical and mental well-being
• Participants: n=289 members
• MANCOVA indicate members with high levels of
engagement leads to higher mental and physical health
ratings over time
Abstract

4. Introduction
Clubhouses:
• Recovery spaces for people living with serious and persistent
mental illness
• Build long-term relationships and support, develop new working
skills, & share an inclusive setting
Covid & Closure:
Pandemic conditions: isolation; structuredroutine & lack of
communitysupport
• Mental health consequences:hopelessness, despair, grief
• 1/3 Italian healthcare workers reported symptoms in range of
psychiatric morbidity (GHQ-12)
• 1/2 Chinese healthcare workers reported clinically significant
anxiety & depression
• 70% indicated psychological distress

5. Introduction: Purpose
To assess the methods and effectiveness of the Clubhouse
response to the COVID-19 pandemic during a crisis period
• Health crises
• Mental health coping
• Engagement with peers
• Engagement with technology

6. Introduction: Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1:
Members maintain contact with the Clubhouse and other
Clubhouse members/staff would be predictive of fewer instances
of hospitalization or emergency room visits (crises).
Hypothesis 2:
Members with indicative of high Clubhouse engagement will
report significantly higher physical and mental health ratings over
time than those in the low Clubhouse engagement group.
Hypothesis 3:
Members reporting contacting peers/members during
building closures will report higher physical and mental health
ratings over time than those who did not contact other
peers/members.

7. Methodology/Experimental
• An invitation to participate in the surveys was emailed to all 309 Clubhouses
with memberships to Clubhouse International.
• Recruitment was conducted by Clubhouse organizations for the purpose
of understanding impact of the pandemic
• Two surveys were developed in Qualtrics and administered online.
• Member Survey was emailed weekly
• Director Survey was emailed monthly
• Secondary data analyses were conducted by WSU with de-identified data.
• Participants received a participant ID number to allow for repeated
measurements during data collection.
• Member consent across survey administrations was obtained through reading
or being read an introduction to the survey containing information about
consent and the data usage, after which the participant or interviewer
proceeded with the first question as indication of consent.

8. Methodology: Participants
Director Survey
• (n = 140)
• 19 countries
Top 3 Countries:
• United States (74%)
• Italy (4%)
• Norway (4%)

9. Methodology: Participants
Member Survey
• Initial measurements:
• (T1) n = 1,869
• (T2) n = 777
• (T3) n = 479
• Listwise deletion
was used to delete
cases with missing
data on any
analysis variables,
leaving a final
sample size n = 289
Variable Mean/Proportion SD Range
Member Demographics
Age 46.34 13.65 20-79
% Male 0.55
% Female 0.45
Race/Ethnicity
White/Caucasian 0.55
Hispanic 0.03
Black/African American 0.30
American Indian/Alaska Native 0.003
Asian 0.02
Other/Unknown 0.09

10. Methodology: Measurement
Member Survey
Variable​ Measure​​
Well-being​
Self-report of mental and physical health ratings
on scale from 1-10
Hospitalizations​
Number of hospital or emergency room visits
reported by member​
Clubhouse Engagement​
Self-reported frequency of engagement in
virtual Clubhouseactivities​

11. Experimental: Analysis
• Time 1: Logistic regression examine the effects of
Clubhouse engagement on rate of hospitalizations (crises) and
member well-being
• MANCOVA: Repeated measures to examine the effects of
Clubhouse engagement and contact with other members on well-
being over 3 distinct timepoints
o Dependent variables: current mental health status &
current physical health status
o Independent variables: degree of Clubhouse engagement
(high and low) & member/peer phone contact (presence and
absence)
o Three covariates: gender, and mental and physical health
status prior to the pandemic.

12. Results and Discussion
Initial “Pulse”
(i.e. Time1)
• 95% considered contacting with Clubhousemembers and/or staff as a coping
mechanism
• 78% reported having high Clubhouseengagement (i.e. daily or weekly)
• Virtual Clubhouse engagement and hospitalization rates are negatively correlated

13. Results and Discussion
• Box’s Test of Equality of Covariance Matrices: p >.001; p
=.002,
• No violation of assumption of homogeneity of variance-
covariance matrices
• Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances:
• Equal variances for the majority of variables
• Except current physical health at Wave 3: p > .05; p =.009
• Violation of assumption: conservative alpha level of
.025

14. Results and Discussion

15. Results and Discussion

16. Discussion
• Preliminary descriptive statistics:
• No significant across countries: engagement was comparable internationally
• 60% reported peer engagement via phone
• 78% reported high Clubhouseengagement
• 95% reported consider Clubhouserelationship
• MANCOVA:
• Higher reported wellness ranking over time by engaged members
• No significant difference between male or female members, aside from Wave 1
• Overall, connectedness to supports was beneficial to members

17. Discussion: Implications
•Broader population of people recovering from SPMI
•Expansion
•Timeline: No pandemic

18. Conclusions
•Members with high levels of engagement are more likely to
report higher mental & physical health scores
•Findings support & highlight the effectiveness of the
Clubhouse model & their adaptiveness to the pandemic
•Connectivity of a community
•Clubhouses are essential!