[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 78 (Tuesday, June 16, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




IN HONOR OF THE 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PATIENT/FAMILY PSYCHOEDUCATION 
                                 GROUP

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 16, 1998

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, I rise before my colleagues to commend the 
success of the Kings County Hospital Center's Patient/Family 
Psychoeducation Group, on their fifteenth anniversary. Since its 
founding in 1983, this group, geared mostly towards patients with 
Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disease, has been combating the 
rehospitalization of patients following their discharge from inpatient 
settings.
  This program has yielded many positive effects, a record of which has 
been published in the March 1993 issue of the Journal of Psychosocial 
Nursing. The Psychoeducation Group has helped many patients who have 
been out of the hospital, to change a pattern of recidivism for 
consistent outpatient treatment.
  The Psychoeducation Group consists of patients and families that are 
primarily, immigrants from the Caribbean nations. The program has been 
well received by this group, and the information sharing model has been 
very effective.
  I would like to recognize the hard work and commitment that the 
Psychoeducation Group has exhibited throughout the past fifteen years. 
Its efforts have truly changed the nature of many lives