Our Experts
Joseph P. Merlino, M.D., MPA
Joseph P. Merlino, M.D., MPA is the Deputy Executive Director for Behavioral Health, Kings County Hospital in New York and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at New York University’s School of Medicine. A widely respected leader in psychiatry with a diverse expertise, Dr. Merlino is co-author of American Psychiatry & Homosexuality as well as The Other Ground Zero, in Disaster Psychiatry; Intervening When Nightmares Come True.
Dr. Merlino has a legacy of building outstanding departments of psychiatry, supervising all levels of care. As Associate Director of Psychiatry at Lenox Hill Hospital, he was widely acknowledged for significant advancements in the quality of inpatient care and emergency services, and in the reputation of the Department of Psychiatry. He was also Chairman of Lenox Hill’s Hospital Ethics Committee and awarded for this work as well.
As Director of Outpatient Psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital, Dr. Merlino led successful efforts to upgrade quality of care for a multifaceted program of one of the most challenging and diverse city hospitals in America. His success at Bellevue led to his appointment as Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Queens Hospital, where he again stewarded growth and strength of an entire department and expansion of its services. When Kings County Hospital confronted numerous legal challenges arising from quality of care issues and the needs of different populations, Dr. Merlino was chosen and recruited as the “go-to” leader to turn around a monolithic department amidst volatile community concern.
In recent years, Dr. Merlino has emerged as a leading expert on ethics issues in hospital and patient care. A, pragmatic interdisciplinary thinker and practitioner, Dr. Merlino was awarded the Wholeness of Life Award 1998 by the Health Chaplaincy, Inc. In addition to his hospital ethics work at Lenox Hill, Dr. Merlino was a physician ethicist at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, where he served as an attending physician in the Departments of Community Medicine and Psychiatry.
Dr. Merlino is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, as well as the New York Academy of Medicine. He serves on the Committee on Human Sexuality for the prestigious Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. Dr. Merlino is the Book Review Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and is the President of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry.