Uncuffed: Assessing The Impact Of Police Custody On Emergency Psychiatric Care In New York City

Sponsored by the Hans Lowenbach Memorial Fund ​Elizabeth Ford, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist and forensic psychiatrist who has provided decades of direct treatment and leadership in healthcare for people with mental illness involved in the criminal justice system in New York City. She is currently Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Founder and Chair of the Justice Involved Behavioral Health Workgroup at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. Dr. Ford's research and academic work centers on topics related to increasing awareness about and knowledge of health care in confinement settings and encouraging mental health professionals to become more involved in reducing the criminalization of mental illness. She teaches numerous classes to a range of multi-disciplinary trainees, including medical students and psychiatric residents, at Columbia and other New York City-based academic institutions. Her first non-academic book, a critically acclaimed memoir entitled Sometimes Amazing Things Happen: Heartbreak and Hope on the Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Prison Ward, was published in 2017. Former positions include the Director of the Division of Forensic Psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital, Training Director for the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship, Chief of Psychiatry for New York City's Health + Hospitals' Correctional Health Services at Rikers Island, and the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services. Dr. Ford received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her medical degree from the University of Virginia, and her psychiatric and forensic psychiatric training at the New York University School of Medicine.