If the hospital would not help the patient, damaging that trust did not seem worth it. “If you’re going to forcibly take away somebody’s rights and take them to the hospital against their will, you want to make sure you’re not making the situation worse,” Mr. Auwarter said. BronxWorks sent its first person to the hospital under the mayor’s directive on Christmas night, when the wind chill was 12 degrees. Outreach workers at an elevated subway station approached a woman in her 60s who had refused to talk to them for five years. Her legs were covered with ulcers and so swollen she could not get socks on, and one foot was bare.

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Persons: ”, Mitchell Katz, ” Mr, Auwarter, BronxWorks, Jacobi, Olivia Cooley, ’ Organizations: Psychiatric Center