The program was set up to involve, on a continuing basis, the significant other of frequently-readmitted hospitalized psychiatric VA patients. The couples identified their characteristic strengths, and their maladaptive ways of functioning, and were expected to make use of alternative ways of behaving which were recommended by the staff. A day-long training workshop was held for group members and significant others which emphasized communication, decision making, feedback and individual styles of problem solving. Certain in-hospital events which called for group cohesion and/or specific behavior change were enacted. After release, 39 couples who completed the program remained in contact via telephone for six months. The results of a rating system used are strongly suggestive that the level of the patient's adjustment and the level of the family's adjustment, as perceived by the patient and the significant other for the first six months after he left the hospital, were significantly higher than the level of adjustment which existed before the veteran entered the hospital. Interesting discoveries were made regarding utilization of a problem and solution worksheet approach, the utilization of phone calls as a means of keeping in contact with patients for follow-up ratings, the use of a pragmatic behaviorally-oriented approach rather than an insight and/or dynamic type orientation, and the importance of requiring couples to report how they dealt with specific problems which occurred while the veteran was on pass from the hospital. (Author/LFB)