User:RecoveryMN/Vail Place
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Vail Place is an independently operated non profit organization and provider of community-based recovery services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness such as major depression, bipolar, and schizophrenia, located in Hopkins and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
History
Opened in 1981, Vail Place is named after Dr. David Vail, a psychiatrist who trained at Harvard Medical School and former Medical Director of Minnesota's Department of Public Welfare (Department of Human Services) until his death at the age of 45 in 1971. By the early 1980’s, most Minnesota residents suffering from mental illness had been discharged from institutions in a process referred to as deinstitutionalization. People in desperate need of recovery assistance had virtually nowhere to turn in the community. Vail Place was founded to meet the need for community services resulting from de-institutionalization.
Description
Vail Place is governed by a volunteer board of directors comprised of community professionals with legal, financial, administrative, psychological, and communications expertise.
Each year Vail Place helps over 1,600 people work toward living independently and successfully by helping them find and maintain housing and employment, develop basic living skills, and access community support and resources.[1] Based on a clubhouse model of psychosocial rehabilitation, members participate on a voluntary basis and recovery centers on individual's strengths and abilities as opposed to their illness. These internationally replicated psychosocial rehabilitation programs offer dignified, consumer-centered services that have proven effective in reducing hospitalizations and promoting recovery and reintegration in the community. According to a study on the clubhouse model conducted by Schonebaum et al.,clubhouse participants earned signifcantly higher hourly wages and stayed employed for significantly more weeks than PACT (Program of Assertive Community Treatment) participants.[2]
Programs & services
Employment support
Housing support
Social support
Benefits assistance
Medication monitoring
Crisis assistance
Independent living skills training
Community Outreach
Linkage and referrals to additional community services
Intensive case management
Timeline
1981 – received nonprofit status
1983 – became a United Way agency (in ’86 received United Way rating of “excellence”)
1998 – Community Support Program of the Year – MN Dept. of Human Services
1999 – both facilities received highest ICCD (International Center for Clubhouse Development) certification
2004 – developed important community collaborations, including Hopkins and St. Louis Park Housing Authorities, Project for Pride in Living, and NAMI MN
2007 - Eleven Who Care Agency of Distinction[3]
External links
http://www.vailplace.org
http://www.firstgiving.com/vailplace
http://www.dhs.state.mn.us