Ruby Cramer spotlights Lisa Singh, a psychiatric nurse who spends her nights patrolling New York City’s subway platforms in search of individuals showing signs of mental illness. As part of the city’s homeless-outreach effort, Singh assesses people on the spot and has the power to order involuntary removals (and hospitalizations for up to 72 hours). “The protocol was called a 9.58,” Cramer explains, “a shorthand for a section of the state’s mental hygiene law, and Lisa could use it at her discretion to remove mentally ill people who couldn’t meet their basic needs — even if they weren’t acting dangerously toward others. During her shifts from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., she had seen patients with obvious signs of acute psychosis. But more often, Lisa encountered what she called ‘the subtle face’ of untreated mental illness, with minutes to piece together a clinical picture before a patient walked away or disappeared into a train.” Cramer sketches a moving portrait of a woman working night after night to connect with the city’s most vulnerable and overlooked residents—even if only for a few moments.
Lisa took a step forward and locked eyes with him. “Sir, I’m a nurse. My name is Lisa,” she said.
“Can I go to the train?” he said.
“Can we help you with shelter?” she asked.
“No, you cannot help me with shelter,” the man said. “No offense, being surrounded by cops right now isn’t making me feel any more comfortable when I’m just sitting here as a homeless person trying to get out of the rain.”
“Okay,” Lisa said. “I think —”
“But you’re not thinking,” the man said, even louder. “Your ‘thinking’ is not putting me in a safe place. You’re putting me in danger right now.”
“Okay.”
More picks from The Washington Post
The Free-Living Bureaucrat
“All over the world, tens of thousands of times a year, some doctor was trying to improve on some unsatisfying treatment for some deadly affliction. And no one was recording what had worked and what had not.”
The Judgment of São Miguel
“But so many had turned away from his church that soon, demographers say, if not already, Brazil would for the first time no longer be majority-Catholic.”
Ripples of Hate
“A chance encounter at N.Y. playground leaves a father asking, ‘What is justice now?’”
The Hero
“Rich Fierro fought in America’s war on terror. Then terror found him at home.”
A Catatonic Woman Awakened After 20 Years. Her Story May Change Psychiatry.
“After months of targeted treatments — and more than two decades trapped in her mind — April woke up.”
The Librarian Who Couldn’t Take It Anymore
“She loved books. And in a time of spreading book bans in public schools, that’s why this Florida librarian had to quit.”
