Lake Country Cottage opened its doors mid-May and will provide new opportunities for community members diagnosed with mental illness. The Cottage’s goal is to use the tenets of the Clubhouse Model to help people diagnosed with mental illness (its members) with employment and housing, create daily structure, build work and social skills and develop a community of meaningful relationships. The technical term is psychosocial rehabilitation, but it’s essentially about building positive relationships and skills that can help you overcome the challenges of living with a mental health diagnosis.
Lake Country Cottage is located at 516 1st Street West in Park Rapids (immediately West of Casey’s on Hwy 34) and is operated by Lake Country Associates. Currently, “The Cottage” is being used as a comfortable space for community mental health staff to complete their paperwork, meet individually with clients, and provide ARMHS skills groups. Beginning next week, we will begin offering scheduled drop-in hours as follows:
Monday 9AM-1PM Tuesday Noon-4PM Thursday Noon-4PM Friday 9AM-1PM
A 2015 community needs assessment conducted by The Improve Group found that in our region, a “drop-in center” was one of the top needs identified. A drop-in center is also regularly identified as a strong community need at the Hubbard County Mental Health Local Advisory Council. “It’s for those times when you are having problems with your symptoms, but it’s not so bad that you need to go to the hospital”, said one consumer advocating for the need at the Advisory Council meeting, “when you just need to be around people, away from the four walls of your apartment and in a safe place with people who understand about your illness”.
Lake Country Cottage is also host to the Activities Leadership Group (ALG) meetings and activities.
What is the Activities Leadership Group?
ALG is a consumer-run group that meets twice a month to plan and implement social and recreational activities for the larger community of mental health consumers. ALG typically plans two community activities per month, which can be found on LCA Activity Calendar.
Last week, The Cottage kicked off its ALG schedule in the garage with a “garden party”. Staff and members brought in their overgrown houseplants to split and share with others. Everyone got their hands dirty and walked away with new houseplants to warm their homes and apartments. “It was so fun”, said Jean Greseth, plant-splitting enthusiast and counselor at LCA, “it’s what you’re supposed to do with plants…share them with the people you care about”.
Learn more about the Lake Country Cottage.