Farewell
Dear friends:
This year I am bidding farewell for reasons of age and health to the organization of the Schizophrenia Courses, which with the ISPS International Congress in Madrid in 2006 and the Online Workshops and Courses during the pandemic, have kept me busy for thirty years. These experiences have provided me more satisfaction than worries, and I could not have carried them out without the initial help of the healthcare and administrative staff of Gregorio Maraņon Hospital Psychiatry ward in Madrid and later for more than twenty years, the support of the Course Advisory Committee, and the unfailing dedication and extraordinary organisational capacity of Bco Congresos, Technical Secretariat of these Courses during all this time.
For three decades, more than three hundred professors from all over the world have come to Madrid, all of whom were among the most relevant and advanced in the field of psychosis and its psychotherapeutic and psychosocial approaches. They have taught us a great deal in over four hundred lectures, almost a hundred workshops and through the many bibliographic reports of their publications. In addition, we have distributed twenty fundamental books in the courses which provide a global overview of psychotic disorders to aid in the development of more comprehensive and complete therapeutic programmes.
Most importantly, during these three decades, we have met two generations of mental health professionals interested in helping people with psychotic experiences more and better. Nine thousand professionals have attended our courses leading to a total of almost fifteen thousand attendances. We have witnessed the initiatives and enthusiasm of many of them, thanks to their active participation, and the more than three thousand posters presented. I am sure that many patients with psychotic disorders have benefited from their perspectives and practices, and I am happy to think that the Schizophrenia Courses have contributed to this.
Thank you very much.
Manuel González de Chávez
