Bio
Jocelyn Perez spent her first 22 years in NYC government at Bellevue Hospital, starting as a Staff Nurse. In 2008 she left Bellevue as the Associate Executive Director of Nursing in Psychiatry and she moved to Metropolitan Hospital as its Director of Nursing in Psychiatry. There, Ms. Perez leads a group of more than 200 Nursing staff in Psychiatry inpatient, outpatient and emergency services. Throughout her career, Ms. Perez has been an innovator in improving patient experience, safety and quality of care. At Bellevue, she initiated the first inpatient Peer Counseling Program wherein consumers of psychiatric care who completed training for Peer Counseling are employed as staff, a model that has been replicated in other City hospitals. Peer Counselors with the same lived experience assist the patients in their own treatment and recovery. Ms. Perez says, “My work focuses on helping staff understand that patients with psychiatric disorders can get better and lead normal lives. Like any human being, they want to have a job, a sense of purpose, to have families, to belong and to be loved.”
