“We are Actually Colleagues”: Clubhouse Staffs’ Experiences of Working Side-by-side with Members

Within the psychosocial Clubhouse model, a program designed to foster hope and social and vocational recovery for people with severe mental illness, clubhouse members work alongside of staff and their peers in the “work-ordered-day” (WOD). We need more knowledge about the complexity of the staff role and the associated relational dynamics in clubhouses across cultural contexts. Through the analysis of two focus group interviews, this qualitative study explored the possible differences between Norwegian and American clubhouse staff experiences of the important components of working alongside of members. The findings revealed that the staff in both focus groups valued the importance of the human connections in working alongside as well as the step-wise approaches. Their ways of reasoning had much in common with how Vygotsky explain the importance of stimularing the learner to reach “the zone of proximal development”, through “scaffolding” techniques. The socially oriented, supportive working community transformed both staff and members from “you” and “I” to an “us”. I” to an “us”.