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ENLARGE
Candace Wené, a regular client of Fowler House, upper left, listens for a client's lunch order as other clients pay for and fill plates with salad and vegetables. Wené is the house's frequent cook, arriving nearly everyday to make lunch. Wené was diagnosed with mental illness in her 30s. She recovered from alcohol and methamphetamine addiction in the 1990s only to come down with breast cancer this year.
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ENLARGE
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Exiting the kitchen, Wené passes by a board with guidelines for clients who use Fowler House. Fowler House was started by Douglas County Mental Health in the early 1980s to provide a place for the seriously and persistently mentally ill.
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ENLARGE
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Kim Myers, center, laughs as she jokes with Kristi Van Atta, the house manager after finding herself too short to reach up to the top of a cabinet in the kitchen at Fowler House in Roseburg. “We’re accepted here, when a lot of times, we’re not accepted by the outside world,” said Myers.
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ENLARGE
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Candace Wené heads to the bus stop after a day at Fowler House in Roseburg. Fowler House was started by Douglas County Mental Health in the early 1980s to provide a place for the seriously and persistently mentally ill.
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Christmas dinner was served Dec. 18 at Fowler House. The next day, it was leftovers.
“It’s hot turkey sandwiches,” said Candace Wené, a regular client of Fowler House and its frequent cook. “It’s a pretty good meal for a dollar.”
Wené starts preparation depending on the number of people served that day. On this particular day, there were only 13, so she was able to wait till 11 a.m. For the Christmas feast, 52 people came to Fowler House. She began at 8 a.m. and had to be told to let someone else take over.
“You have to make her pace herself because she will wear herself out,” said Kristi Van Atta, the house manager.
The kitchen, which pays for itself, is one way the clients of Fowler House can stay active and feel useful. Money raised through the sale of snacks, either homemade or store-bought, can be used to fund field trips for the clients.
Most of the work, from making food to doing chores, is done by the clients, with only a little encouragement by Van Atta.
“They do need some help to keep it going,” she said
“What you want with this bread is to lay it out and slice it in half like this,” Myers, 51, said, motioning a diagonal cut. “This is the way I like mine set up so I can scoop up the gravy.”
“We’re accepted here, when a lot of times, we’re not accepted by the outside world,” said Myers.
<b>GOOD INVESTMENT</b>
Fowler House was started by Douglas County Mental Health in the early 1980s to provide a place for the seriously and persistently mentally ill.
“It’s hot turkey sandwiches,” said Candace Wené, a regular client of Fowler House and its frequent cook. “It’s a pretty good meal for a dollar.”
Wené starts preparation depending on the number of people served that day. On this particular day, there were only 13, so she was able to wait till 11 a.m. For the Christmas feast, 52 people came to Fowler House. She began at 8 a.m. and had to be told to let someone else take over.
“You have to make her pace herself because she will wear herself out,” said Kristi Van Atta, the house manager.
The kitchen, which pays for itself, is one way the clients of Fowler House can stay active and feel useful. Money raised through the sale of snacks, either homemade or store-bought, can be used to fund field trips for the clients.
Most of the work, from making food to doing chores, is done by the clients, with only a little encouragement by Van Atta.
“They do need some help to keep it going,” she said
“What you want with this bread is to lay it out and slice it in half like this,” Myers, 51, said, motioning a diagonal cut. “This is the way I like mine set up so I can scoop up the gravy.”
“We’re accepted here, when a lot of times, we’re not accepted by the outside world,” said Myers.
<b>GOOD INVESTMENT</b>
Fowler House was started by Douglas County Mental Health in the early 1980s to provide a place for the seriously and persistently mentally ill.
“The people with mental problems need a place to go and their socializing is just as important as yours and mine,” said former county Commissioner Joyce Morgan. “It was a good investment. It cost less to provide the treatment.”
Clients are treated by Douglas County Mental Health, where they fall under the coverage of the Oregon Health Plan. If their doctors or therapists feel they need socialization, they are referred to Fowler House.
They attend two group sessions a week at Fowler, in classes that range from anger management to the men’s group to a class that tackles depression by harnessing creative energies.
Guests are discouraged except on special occasions. This helps ensure that faces are familiar, creates structure and minimizes the chances that someone will bring drugs or alcohol, Van Atta said.
Clients are treated by Douglas County Mental Health, where they fall under the coverage of the Oregon Health Plan. If their doctors or therapists feel they need socialization, they are referred to Fowler House.
They attend two group sessions a week at Fowler, in classes that range from anger management to the men’s group to a class that tackles depression by harnessing creative energies.
Guests are discouraged except on special occasions. This helps ensure that faces are familiar, creates structure and minimizes the chances that someone will bring drugs or alcohol, Van Atta said.
The public benefit of Fowler House is that it keeps the clients “off the street and gives them opportunity to heal and become positive members of the community,” Morgan said.
“She was a real strong force for a lot of them,” Morgan said.
<b>GIVE AND RECEIVE</b>
Fowler House shut down for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Before they could leave the Friday before, it was John Denning’s job to clean up the kitchen, count out the till and put everything away.
Denning, 47, has been coming to Fowler House for seven years now. He is one of two clients who have a key to the building and can open and close the house.
“If it wasn’t for this place, I’d probably be dead,” said Denning. “I can say that realistically.”
He is a gaunt man, taller than average, who wears a ball cap, glasses and an Oregon Ducks sweatshirt.
“She was a real strong force for a lot of them,” Morgan said.
<b>GIVE AND RECEIVE</b>
Fowler House shut down for Christmas Eve and Christmas. Before they could leave the Friday before, it was John Denning’s job to clean up the kitchen, count out the till and put everything away.
Denning, 47, has been coming to Fowler House for seven years now. He is one of two clients who have a key to the building and can open and close the house.
“If it wasn’t for this place, I’d probably be dead,” said Denning. “I can say that realistically.”
He is a gaunt man, taller than average, who wears a ball cap, glasses and an Oregon Ducks sweatshirt.
He has suffered his whole life from mental illness and spent much of his youth housed in the state mental hospital in California, he said. In years past, he abused drugs and alcohol but has been clean for years.
Before his physical health began to take its toll, Denning said he rode a bicycle 17 miles one way, every day, from Glide. Years of hard living and heavy medication for schizophrenia, especially in the old days, have given him pancreatitis.
“Now, with my pancreas, I’m actually trying to prolong my life instead of take it,” he said.
Counting out the till, Denning places the dollars on the counter and moves the coins one by one with his fingers. He counts $33.55 profit.
“I was really depressed, withdrawn” before Fowler House, Denning said. A fairly taciturn man, he said he is nervous talking to reporters, but he had a few things he wanted to say.
“I’m trying to come in here as much as possible — because I’m trying to give back what people have given me,” he said, his eyes welling up behind his glasses.
As 4 o’clock approached, his ride arrived, and his girlfriend, a fellow client he met at Fowler House, waited for him to leave so they could get home to Glide.
“I basically try to keep this place going,” Denning said.
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
Before his physical health began to take its toll, Denning said he rode a bicycle 17 miles one way, every day, from Glide. Years of hard living and heavy medication for schizophrenia, especially in the old days, have given him pancreatitis.
“Now, with my pancreas, I’m actually trying to prolong my life instead of take it,” he said.
Counting out the till, Denning places the dollars on the counter and moves the coins one by one with his fingers. He counts $33.55 profit.
“I was really depressed, withdrawn” before Fowler House, Denning said. A fairly taciturn man, he said he is nervous talking to reporters, but he had a few things he wanted to say.
“I’m trying to come in here as much as possible — because I’m trying to give back what people have given me,” he said, his eyes welling up behind his glasses.
As 4 o’clock approached, his ride arrived, and his girlfriend, a fellow client he met at Fowler House, waited for him to leave so they could get home to Glide.
“I basically try to keep this place going,” Denning said.
• You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
