Monday Nov 20, 2023
Love Code- Opening our Hearts to the Homeless with Robert Okin, MD
Opening our Hearts to the Homeless with Robert Okin, MD
Robert Okin, MD is a leading psychiatrist and world-recognized expert on human rights for the mentally disabled. He began his career at the National Institute of Mental Health, followed by tenures as commissioner of mental health for the states of Vermont and Massachusetts. He went on to serve as chief of psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco, for 17 years. As a founding member of the board of advisors of Mental Disability Rights International (MDRI), he led psychiatric projects and investigative missions in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Peru, Romania, Turkey, Paraguay, and Ukraine, as well as Mexico, where he helped to close the notoriously abusive Ocaranza psychiatric facility in Hidalgo, replacing it with more homelike settings and community-based services. He has been quoted in The New York Times numerous times and was featured on ABC’s 20/20. He is the author of SILENT VOICES: People with Mental Disorders on the Street.