Outside In: Kings County Psych

The images from Outside In: Kings County Psych, a project designed for my residency at Residency Unlimited (RU) in 2020, were taken at the Behavioral Health Service of NYC Health & Hospital/ Kings County in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Outside In: Kings County Psych documents meetings and interactions with young adults in the 6-week Partial Hospitalization Program as they transition from inside to outside, from inpatient back to their lives — while managing symptoms, medications, trauma and socio-economic headwinds. I am grateful to everyone who trusted me enough to share some of their story and of what it’s like to be in the highs and lows of their minds. I am grateful to NYC Health & Hospitals/ Kings County, Residency Unlimited, the Economic Hardship Reporting Project and to the New York Department of Cultural Affairs for supporting the work. The history of 200 year-old Kings County Psychiatry—memorialized by Ol' Dirty Bastard ("In the G Building takin' all types of medicine")--is also a part of this story. After years of neglect and the much-publicized death of Jamaican immigrant Esmin Green in the waiting room, a dramatic reset began for a hospital that cares for one of the most underserved, trauma-affected, and ethnically diverse neighborhoods in NYC. Kings County, once the “symbol of a health-care system” that has “failed horribly” (CNN), is now considered a "model acute care psychiatric facility" (U.S. Department of Justice) filled with engaged and creative clinicians that create a space between hospitalization and the chaos of life.