Oral history interview with Ray Trussell, 1983

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Name: Trussell, Ray Elbert, 1914- (Interviewee); Joseph, Herman, 1931 (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with Ray Trussell, 1983
Other Titles: Reminiscences of Ray Trussell, 1983; Oral history of Ray Trussell, 1983
Abstract: This interview focuses on Dr. Ray Trussell's work as a health care administrator addressing heroin addiction in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. It begins with discussion of Trussel's earlier medical career in Iowa, where addiction was virtually unknown, up to his arrival in New York City in 1955 to become dean of the School of Public Health at Columbia University. He describes a study he help ed to conduct that year that concluded that heroin addiction was a serious chronic disease in need of more research, and the establishment in 1961 of a small heroin withdrawal research unit at the deteriorating Riverside Hospital. He discusses the attitudes he encountered towards addicts among health professionals as Commissioner of Hospitals, the funding by the Health Research Council of addiction treatment research, and his work with Dr. Vincent Dole and Dr. Marie Nyswander on the first protocol studies using methadone at Manhattan General Hospital, later the Bernstein Institute. The interview tracks the expansion of the project into a large-scale treatment and research program drawing on anti-poverty and mental health funds, headquartered at Columbia University, producing detailed data and helping to shift professional attitudes towards addiction. Trussell concludes with descriptions of his advocacy work promoting methadone treatment and his assessment of its efficacy and impact on public health
Collection Name: Addicts Who Survived oral history collection
Subjects: Drug addicts--United States; Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States; Methadone maintenance--History--20th century.--United States; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Trussell, Ray Elbert, 1914-; Dole, Vincent P. (Vincent Paul) 1913-2006; Robinson, Marie Nyswander, 1919-1986; Columbia University. School of Public Health
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 1983

Physical Description: 20 pages
Note (Biographical): Dr. Ray Trussell was born in Toledo, Iowa in 1914. He studied at the University of Iowa, entering its College of Medicine in 1934 and received his M.D. After a stint in the Army as an epidemiologist during World War II, during which he was awarded a B ronze Star, he earned a master's degree in Public Health at Johns Hopkins. During the 1950s he worked as an epidemiologist, professor, and administrator in New York and New Jersey and authored two books on rural health care. In 1961 New York City Mayor Robert Wagner appointed Trussell to the post of Commissioner of Hospitals for the city. During his tenure, he addressed issues relating to the quality of care in municipal hospitals, ambulance and psychiatric services, birth control, and suicide prevention. From 1968 until his retirement in 1979, he served as director of the Beth Israel Medical Center, transforming it into a nationally renowned research institution known for its pioneering methadone program. Ray Trussell was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived
Note: Interviewed by Herman Joseph on September 26, 1983
Note (Provenance): David Courtwright, Herman Joseph, and Don Des Jarlais, Gift, 1988
Language: English
Library Location: Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Browse Location’s Digital Content
Catalog Record: 11874918
Also In: Oral History Archives at Columbia; Time-Based Media; Time-Based Media
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/d8-bnre-3z82
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.