[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 25, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E385-E386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      A TRIBUTE TO LEO V. STIMMLER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS-

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 25, 2009

  Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Leo V. 
Stimmler, who after 34 years of service to the NYC Health and Hospitals 
Corporation has decided to retire.
  A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mr. Stimmler graduated from 
Fordham University's School of Social Work. Shortly thereafter he 
joined the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. Hired by 
Earl Deane, chief psychiatric social worker at the Kings County 
Hospital's Bedford-Stuyvesant Addiction Treatment Center, Mr. Stimmler 
began a long career working with those dealing with addiction. In 1976, 
Mr. Stimmler was promoted to social work supervisor and, eventually, 
the head of the social work department.
  In 1985, Mr. Stimmler was hired by Wayne C. Wiltshire and Arthur 
Wright to administer the HHC drug and alcohol treatment program at a 
sister HHC facility, the Cumberland Diagnostic and Treatment Center. 
With Phil Garrett, CASAC, they wrote successful grant applications for 
adolescent treatment, homeless families, acupuncture, women services, 
parolees and homeless veterans. In 1988, some of the homeless patients 
complained to Mr. Stimmler that it was difficult attending treatment at 
Cumberland during the day to then return to the shelter at night, to a 
drill floor with 700 beds in an armory facility pervaded by drugs and 
alcohol. Mr. Stimmler asked Holly Argent-Tariq, Cumberland's senior 
administrator, to help him convince Frank Gonzalez, the director of the 
Atlantic Mens Shelter, to set aside a separate room for 10 patients 
living in the shelter who were simultaneously attending alcohol and 
drug treatment programs. Mr. Gonzalez agreed, on the condition that the 
shelter resident supply proof of enrollment in a treatment program and 
make a pledge of abstinence. On April 22, 1989, Sara Rimer's article in 
the New York Times described the history and success of the first drug 
free dorm in a city shelter.
  Within six years the outpatient clinic census at Cumberland went from 
12,000 annual outpatient visits to 48,000. According to the New York 
City Bureau of Health Statistics, between January 1, 1988 and December 
31, 1991, the number of deaths from drug abuse in Fort Greene, Brooklyn 
dropped from 30 percent to 10 percent.

[[Page E386]]

  In 1982, in response to difficulties retaining addiction counselors 
due to the lack of a career ladder, Mr. Stimmler asked the HHC Office 
of Behavioral Health to add senior addiction counselor to the corporate 
plan of titles. After working on the project for more than ten years 
with Brenda Ballenger and the addiction counselors of Cumberland, 
Woodhull and Kings County Hospitals, a new assignment level for the 
addiction counselor position was created. On January 29, 1993, Rosa 
Maria Gil, DSW, HHC Senior Vice President for Mental Health and 
Chemical Dependency Services, announced the creation of the titles of 
senior addiction counselor I and II.
  In 1998 Mr. Stimmler was assigned responsibility for administering 
the Woodhull Chemical Dependency Program as well as Cumberland's.
  Mr. Stimmler is married to Kathleen, whom he met 36 years ago at the 
Fordham School of Social Work; she is in charge of psychiatric social 
work at the Nassau University Medical Center. They have two children, 
Colin, who works for the City of New York's Department of Homeless 
Services as an Emergency Planner, and Chad, a data analyst, is employed 
by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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