RELEASE: October 28, 2003

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Event: Conference, "A Bridge to the Community"

Date/Time: Thursday, October 30, 2003, at 10 a.m.

Place: Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital Administration Building, Community Room

Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital will host a conference this week outlining efforts by the hospital and its community partners to help prepare patients for life in the community.

Greystone CEO Janet Monroe will attend the conference and introduce the keynote speaker, former CEO Gregory Roberts.

The conference will focus on the hospital's position as a center for short-term treatment of mentally ill patients who are working to return to life in the community. The hospital has been creating connections with the mental health consumers' community as well as resources in the six-county northern New Jersey region. The conference will bring together many of the consumer groups and resources that patients and staff have visited and welcomed to the hospital during the past two years.

The mental health consumers' movement has grown tremendously during the past 10 years. Consumers provide role models of healing and hope.

Consumer representatives and organizations will present information and material on topics such as employment, education and training opportunities; advocacy and lobbying of public officials; wellness and recovery programs; housing options; financial counseling; and self-help centers.

The rehabilitation, education, training and occupational therapy departments of Greystone will offer information on their many programs that prepare patients for life in the community. When leaving the hospital, patients need to be prepared to overcome the many obstacles that still confront them in community life, including the social stigma associated with mental illness, lack of affordable housing, and limited financial and transportation resources.

Greystone is making the effort to bridge these obstacles by making connections to consumers and community resources a part of the fabric of services at the hospital.

The conference is sponsored by the social services and rehabilitation departments of Greystone. For more information, call Jean Forest at (973) 538-1800, ext. 4351.

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