Lucy Ozarin

Early years and education

Lucy Dorothy Ozarin was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 18, 1914, the youngest of four children. When she was seven years old, her family moved to Long Island, New York. She graduated from Lawrence High School.

After graduating from New York University, Ozarin enrolled in New York Medical College's campus in New York City. Ozarin was one of six women enrolled in a class of one-hundred. She earned a doctor of medicine in 1937.

Civilian career

Ozarin worked as a resident at Harlem Hospital in pediatrics for two years. During five months of that time, Ozarin worked on an ambulance, which she found exciting.

Given the choice between treating patients with tuberculosis or mental illness, Ozarin chose the latter because it was not a communicable disease. Ozarin then worked as a resident at Westchester County Hospital's small psychiatric unit.

Seven months into the position, her father suffered a stroke, and she decided to move near Buffalo, New York, where he was living at the time. Ozarin worked at the Gowanda State Hospital for three years.

Military career

When the United States entered World War II, the hospital's male psychiatrists left, and Ozarin found herself the only physician for a thousand patients, most of whom had schizophrenia. Ozarin felt it was impossible to perform her job well when she was spread so thin.

Legislation established Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service as a branch of the United States Naval Reserve in 1942. Inspired in part by her brother's decision to join the military as an engineer in 1942, Ozarin decided she join as well. The hospital's superintendent would not approve Ozarin's request for leave, so Ozarin resigned her position instead.

Ozarin temporarily worked as Assistant to the Superintendent at New York's Metropolitan Hospital for six months until she was sworn into the Navy. The Navy's commissioning document was intended to be used for a man, and the form referred to Ozarin using male pronouns. Ozarin's title was Assistant Surgeon, Lieutenant Junior Grade. Ozarin was one of the first seven women psychiatrists with commissioned officer status in the United States Navy.

Without undergoing any military training at all, Ozarin was immediately assigned to Bethesda, Maryland, in October 1943, reporting to Captain Forrest Martin Harrison. Ozarin spent four months working in a military hospital until she received orders to report to Camp Lejeune.

At the time, there were 33,000 men and 3,000 women stationed at Camp Lejeune. It had two women physicians who were both assigned to the dependents clinic located outside the base. The commander of the hospital gave Ozarin the impression that he respected neither women nor the field of psychiatry. Ozarin was told to do physical examinations on applicants for employment at the hospital, which Ozarin found to be waste of her skills, particularly when doctors with just ninety days of psychiatric training were treating psychiatry patients.

After a few weeks, a colleague in Bethesda helped Ozarin secure a transfer to the WAVES training station at Hunter College in New York City. Ozarin was one of three woman physicians at Hunter College. Ozarin conducted psychiatric examinations of the women entering WAVES and SPARS.

In February 1945, Ozarin was given orders to return to Bethesda to treat WAVES who were suffering from anxiety and other issues. When she was not seeing patients, Ozarin studied at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. She passed the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry later that year.

Post-military career

Following the end of World War II, the Navy began discharging its physicians in 1946. Ozarin returned to New York state to live with her parents, while remaining in the Naval Reserves. Looking for work, she networked with a fellow Navy orientee Mike Spotswood who recommended she apply to work at the Veterans Administration. It took brief interviews with Dr. Harvey Thompkins and Dr. Daniel Blain to secure a position as Assistant Chief of Hospital Psychiatry. Within a year, Ozarin was promoted to Chief of Hospital Psychiatry. During her time at the Veterans Administration, Ozarin visited all of its mental hospitals around the country to investigate the backlog for mental health services and monitor the care provided to patients with mental illness.

Ozarin decided to give up her military commission and the Navy Reserves in 1957. She joined the United States Public Health Service the same year. After working in its office in Kansas City for three years, she decided to attend the Harvard University School of Public Health. Ozarin earned a Masters in Public Health in 1961.

Ozarin returned to the Washington area to work for the National Institute of Mental Health. With funding provided by the Community Mental Health Act, Ozarin worked a program to establish community mental health centers across the country.

Ozarin helped the World Health Organization research the use of alcohol and drugs in Europe between 1971 and 1972.

Ozarin worked until her retirement in 1983.

Retirement

Ozarin volunteered for the National Library of Medicine in the History of Medicine Division from 2004 to 2013. Ozarin wrote most of the text and selected images for its web site, Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry to 1900. She sorted through its collection of 20,000 items as part of her research. For her work, Ozarin received a 2008 Director's Honor Award.

During her late nineties, Ozarin wrote over fifty brief biographies of psychiatrists on Wikipedia.

Ozarin considers physical activity, a good diet, and a modicum of religion and faith to be her key to a long life.

Works