WATERVILLE — A club that has served people with mental illness for 32 years might be forced to shut down as part of the state’s plan to close eight of 12 peer centers and social clubs around the state.

The Waterville Social Club on Ticonic Street provides a place for people recovering from mental illness to socialize and participate in other activities. Some of those who use it are homeless and many have no family, friends or other support, those associated with the center said. Members of the peer-driven center make the rules and serve on a board of directors.

Troy Henderson holds documents while explaining to members of the Waterville Social Club on Thursday that the peer-support center for people recovering from mental illness might be forced to close. David Leaming/Morning Sentinel

Funded by the state Department of Health and Human Services and supervised by Motivational Services Inc., the club is one of two in Kennebec County. The other is Living in the Community Wellness Center on Green Street in Augusta.

DHHS has said it will fund only one of the two centers and is changing policies governing how all the centers in the state are operated. DHHS spokeswoman Samantha Edwards did not immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment late Thursday afternoon.

Members of the Waterville club met Thursday for two hours with managers of both clubs and their supervisor, John Painter, service director at Motivational Services.

Members said they worry that some of their peers will commit suicide, revert to drugs or drinking or end up in the hospital if the Waterville center is forced to close.

“I’ve been coming here one and a half to two years now, and I feel that this is a place I can come, get included in everything, socialize and get out of my apartment,” said Andrew Zelonis, 42, of Winslow.

“That, and a meal,” added Linda Carpenter, 51, also of Winslow. “A lot of us can’t afford to buy groceries. I work and I still can’t afford to buy groceries.” The center serves one meal a day.

Skowhegan resident Florence Laigaie, whose son, Wayne Schwarz, lives with her and has been coming to the center for 11 years, said the club provides emotional support that is critical to his well-being.

“Here, he interacts with people,” Laigaie said. “He’s cooking. He’s learning how to shoot pool. Everybody thinks the world of him. If it closes, my son won’t have a life.”

Emotions ran high at the club Thursday as Painter, Waterville club site manager Gary Stevens and Troy Henderson, senior peer leader of the Augusta club, explained the clubs’ uncertain future.

DHHS and the state Department of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services will hold a conference Friday for those interested in bidding on requests for proposals from the department to take over the centers. The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. in the main conference room on the second floor at the DHHS offices at 41 Anthony Ave. in Augusta. Proposals are due by May 4.

Painter, supervisor of the Waterville and Augusta clubs, said he learned only last week that eight centers would close. The paperwork says the state will require centers to provide computer infrastructure that traditional health care centers have, at the same cost, and that the state will rewrite the rules governing the centers.

Painter, a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner who has worked 16 years at Motivational Services, said the centers work well with their current structure.

“Waterville is a great center,” he said. “It’s been in this community for more than 30 years. It’s well known. People know it.”

Other centers are in Bangor, Biddeford, Bridgton, Brunswick, Caribou, Livermore Falls, Lewiston, Madawaska, Portland, Rockland and Sanford.

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