Lucy Ozarin facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lucy Dorothy Ozarin
M.D., M.P.H.
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Dr. Lucy Ozarin (2012)
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| Born | August 18, 1914 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
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| Died | September 17, 2017 (aged 103) Maryland, U.S.
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| Resting place | Wellwood Cemetery, West Babylon, New York |
| Alma mater | New York University, New York Medical College, Harvard University School of Public Health |
| Occupation | Psychiatrist |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/ |
 United States Navy |
| Rank | Lieutenant Commander |
| Unit | United States Navy Reserve Medical Corps |
Lucy Dorothy Ozarin (August 18, 1914 – September 17, 2017) was a special doctor called a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who help people with their mental health. Dr. Ozarin served in the United States Navy. She was one of the first women psychiatrists to join the Navy. She was also one of only seven female Navy psychiatrists who served during World War II.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Lucy Ozarin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 18, 1914. She was the youngest of four children. Her parents were immigrants from Russia. They met and married in the United States.
When Lucy was seven, her family moved to Inwood, New York. Her family was the only Jewish family in the town. Lucy and her siblings worked at their father's general store. Lucy was a very good student. She finished Lawrence High School when she was only sixteen. The school's Parent-Teacher Association gave her a scholarship to help with college costs.
Ozarin went to New York University, like her older siblings. In her first year, she played on the school's women's basketball team. She also worked selling umbrellas at Macy's on Saturdays. After three years at New York University, Ozarin started medical school. She attended New York Medical College. Lucy was one of only six women in a class of one hundred students. She earned her medical degree in 1937.
Civilian Medical Career
After medical school, Ozarin worked as a resident doctor. She spent two years at Harlem Hospital in pediatrics, which is the study of children's health. For five months, she even worked on an ambulance, which she found very exciting.
Ozarin chose to work with patients who had mental illnesses. She preferred this over treating patients with tuberculosis, which was a contagious disease. She became a resident at Westchester County Hospital in its small psychiatric unit.
After seven months, her father had a stroke. She moved closer to him in Buffalo, New York. Ozarin then worked at the Gowanda State Hospital for three years. She started in the ward for new patients. Later, she moved to the ward for long-term patients. She was in charge of five hundred patients. Ozarin saw that the long-term patients were living in very poor conditions. She tried hard to make their lives better while she was there.
Military Service in World War II
When the United States joined World War II, many male psychiatrists at Gowanda State Hospital left to join the military. Ozarin became the only doctor for a thousand patients. Most of these patients had schizophrenia, a serious mental illness. Ozarin felt she could not do her job well because she had too many patients.
In 1942, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service was created. This was a branch of the United States Naval Reserve for women. Ozarin's brother joined the military that year, which inspired her. She decided to join the Navy too. The hospital superintendent would not let her leave. So, Ozarin resigned from her job.
Ozarin worked at Metropolitan Hospital for six months. Then, she was officially sworn into the Navy. The Navy's paperwork was made for men, so it used male pronouns for her. Ozarin's first title was Assistant Surgeon, Lieutenant Junior Grade. She was one of the first seven women psychiatrists to become an officer in the United States Navy.
Ozarin did not have any military training. She was sent to Bethesda, Maryland, in October 1943. She worked in a military hospital for four months. Then, she was sent to Camp Lejeune.
At Camp Lejeune, there were many thousands of men and women. The hospital commander did not seem to respect women or the field of psychiatry. Ozarin was told to do physical examinations for people applying to work at the hospital. She felt this was a waste of her skills as a psychiatrist. Other doctors with less training were treating mental health patients.
After a few weeks, a friend helped Ozarin transfer to Hunter College in New York City. This was a training station for women in the WAVES. Ozarin was one of three women doctors there. She performed psychiatric exams on women joining the WAVES and SPARS (another women's branch of the military).
In February 1945, Ozarin went back to Bethesda. She treated WAVES who had anxiety and other problems. When she was not seeing patients, she studied at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C.. As World War II ended, Ozarin thought the Navy would not need her much longer. She looked for other jobs. She applied for a special training program in child psychiatry, but she was not accepted. Later that year, she passed a special test to become a certified psychiatrist. This helped her find new job opportunities.
After the Military
After World War II, the Navy began letting its doctors leave in 1946. Ozarin went back to New York to live with her parents. She stayed in the Naval Reserves for a while. She looked for work and found a job at the Veterans Administration. This organization helps military veterans. She quickly became Assistant Chief of Hospital Psychiatry. Within a year, she was promoted to Chief of Hospital Psychiatry.
While working there, Ozarin noticed that many patients stayed in the hospital for ten years or more. She was asked to visit all the Veterans Administration's mental hospitals. She also visited about seventy general hospitals. Her job was to see why there was a long wait for mental health services. She also checked on the care given to patients with mental illness. Ozarin wrote an article about long-term patients who never had visitors. However, the Veterans Administration would not let it be published.
In the early 1950s, Ozarin learned about new ways to help psychiatric patients. She started new programs for patients at the Veterans Administration hospitals. She also created a training center where hospital directors could discuss new ideas in psychiatry.
Ozarin left the Navy Reserves in 1957. She joined the United States Public Health Service that same year. For three years, she worked in Kansas City. She helped start mental health activities and made sure money was used correctly. Ozarin believed that psychiatric patients should be treated for their illnesses. She also believed they should keep their freedom, dignity, and equality. In 1961, she earned a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University School of Public Health. She then returned to her job in Kansas City.
When President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act in 1963, Ozarin was chosen to help write the rules. She helped set up community mental health centers across the country. To decide how these centers should work, Ozarin traveled around the country. She looked at psychiatric services to see what was effective. After writing the rules, she approved grants to build these new centers. These centers would replace large, isolated psychiatric hospitals. They would help people with mental illnesses or developmental disabilities closer to home. Ozarin said that building these centers was costly, but she asked, "What is the alternative?" She believed it was also costly for families to be broken apart and for people to be sick for a long time. Ozarin strongly supported moving psychiatric patients out of large hospitals. She also worked to end the social stigma (negative feelings) about mental health treatment.
Ozarin returned to the National Institute of Mental Health. There, she created new programs to help people with mental illness. She helped bring psychiatrists and social workers to hospitals in rural areas. This made it easier for people in the countryside to get treatment.
Around 1972, Ozarin worked in Copenhagen, Denmark. She was doing research for the World Health Organization. Ozarin continued to work until she retired in 1983.
Retirement and Legacy
After retiring, Ozarin volunteered for the American Psychiatric Association. For about 25 years, she helped organize all the books in their library. She made sure they were all added to the online catalog.
From 2004 to 2013, Ozarin volunteered at the National Library of Medicine. She helped organize old medical books and papers. During the Civil War, the Surgeon General had collected many medical books. Ozarin took on the huge task of cataloging tens of thousands of these documents. This helped medical researchers find and learn from them. Through this project, Ozarin learned a lot about the history of medicine in the United States.
She also sorted and cataloged hundreds of medical papers from the 1700s. During this work, she found the medical paper of Benjamin Rush. He was one of the founders of American psychiatry and signed the United States Declaration of Independence.
Ozarin wrote most of the text and chose images for the National Library of Medicine's website, Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry to 1900. She looked through 20,000 items for her research. For her hard work, she received an award in 2008. She also received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2007.
Even in her late nineties, Ozarin wrote over fifty biographies of famous psychiatrists for Wikipedia. For twenty years, she volunteered at the kitchen of Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, on Saturday afternoons. She was also an active member of the senior citizen's group at her synagogue. She read medical journals every week, a habit she started in medical school.
Ozarin believed that physical activity, a good diet, and faith helped her live a long life. She was thankful for the chances she had. She was also grateful for her courage, intelligence, and creativity. These qualities helped her take advantage of opportunities. When asked for advice for young people, Ozarin said, "Take advantage of your advantages. Be willing to take risks. ... Look for openings. Look for places where you can go. And dream."
Lucy Ozarin passed away in September 2017, at the age of 103.
Images for kids
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Dr. Lucy Ozarin in 2012.
