Articles About The Centre

THEY CALL it a crisis centre - but you could hear a pin drop in its tranquil and uncluttered atmosphere.

Mental health is a subject few wish to think about. But when an estimated one-in-nine people will be admitted to a mental hospital or unit at sometime in their lives, and old-style asylum sized mental hospitals such as Friern and Claybury are closing and sending patients back into the community, then the work being done in a quiet back street of Crouch End is even more surprising.
It's surprising because The Arbours Centre, in Weston Park has been established for more than ten years. It has integrated into the community street around it, that it appears -to be a model on which many local authorities could well study before trying to set up their own schemes when the hospitals c1ose and the patients are discharged.
The centre deals with people in emotional distress. That means people suffering from any problem with themselves, with others, or with life's circumstances can. come for a short stay of up to a month, or longer.
One of the founders of the centre, Dr Joseph Berke believes that crisis points in human life can lead to collapse and chaos or to personal growth and development.
"These crises are turning points," said Dr Berke. ---What happens not only depends on the person in crisis but on the attitudes of friends, family and to whom he and she has turned to for help.
"All too often these people are frightened by the emotional turmoil that accompanies and is part of the crisis".
Then the whole event is likely to be seen as a sign of mental illness, as a 'disease' which must be treated and stopped, rather than as an expression of disease which should be tolerated and can be eased, if not alleviated by understanding and practical support.
Basically that is the theory behind the group of psychotherapists and doctors who live

and work at the centre. It is their home and so they call the people who live with them guests.
One of the few rules is that guests cannot lock themselves away in their rooms for hours without someone checking.
Workers avoid using medication to pacify problems although hospital has been the result for several people.
Joseph Berke trained as a physician and completed his studies in the United States.
"During training 1 had a knack of being able to talk to people."-
He set up the centre with another psychiatrist Morton Schatzman in 1973. They chose Arbours as a name because it connotes shade and shelter. The two formed a charity in 1970 to finance their plan.
They were seen by many fellow professionals as a radical reaction to a sixties movement that went against the then established psychiatric practice.
Since then, the centre has steadily developed and the charity now has training schools and a long-stay Community programme established in Willesden and Wood Green. In all, 15 therapists, 25 trainee therapists and 25 guests are in the Arbours Association.
"Guests" come from all walks of life and from all parts of Britain, usually referred by their general practitioners.
It can cost guests as much as £65 each day - but Joseph Berke says the Arbours is staffed as "a labour of love" and the cost is a third of what it would be on National Health.
A committee, Project Arbours Group raises money. Berke says the Hornsey centre makes a loss of about £8,000 which is made up through the fund-raising efforts.
"There's so much bad news around in the newspapers I wanted to let people know there was some good things going on around
here," he said.