Judianne Densen-Gerber

Background

Judianne Densen-Gerber was born on November 13, 1934, in New York, New York, United States. She was the daughter of Gustave Gerber and Beatrice Densen. Her mother was an heiress of the Densen cardboard box fortune. Her father was a chemical engineer, became a lawyer in his 40s, and was considering studying medicine in his 60s.

Education

In 1956 Judianne Densen-Gerber graduated from Bryn Mawr College. In 1959 she received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia University. In 1963 she obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from New York University. In 1969 Densen-Gerber gained a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from Columbia University.

Career

After completing her internship and psychiatric residency, Judianne Densen-Gerber created Odyssey House in 1966, which became the Odyssey Institute in 1967. Here residents went through group sessions and tried to help themselves without the use of drug therapies such as methadone. Densen-Gerber was a tireless fundraiser for her cause, and she managed to make many political connections, including friendships with New York’s mayor and governor. Her ability to rally support helped her program to expand into Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Utah, Nevada, and Louisiana, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

However, trouble came in the early 1980s when an investigation revealed some irregular personal expenses in her organization’s financial records. The resulting scandal forced her to resign her position as executive director in 1982, though she admitted no wrongdoing; she managed, nevertheless, to remain president of the Australia chapter of the Odyssey Institute until 1986. This would not be her only foray into the scandal, however, for in 1999 she was ordered to pay $200,000 in a settlement concerning missing medicinal cocaine from her private psychiatry practice. Much of her later career was spent working at various hospitals.

She worked as an attending physician at Gracie Square Hospital in New York City from 1982 to 1993, and at Park City Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut, from 1985 to 1993; she was also attending physician at Bridgeport Hospital in 1985 and the Northwest General Hospital in Detroit from 1985 to 1986. From 1987 to 2000 Densen-Gerber worked in Connecticut, serving on the staff at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport and from 1993 to 2000 on the courtesy staff at Norwalk Hospital.

She has published several books, including We Mainline Dreams: The Odyssey House Story (1973) as well as Walk in My Shoes: An Odyssey into Womanlife (1976), and Child Abuse and Neglect as Related to Parental Drug Abuse and Other Antisocial Behavior (1978).

Achievements

• Judianne Densen-Gerber gained notoriety for founding a drug treatment program in New York. She was highly respected for her views on drug and alcohol addiction, as well as her work against child pornography and abuse. Her commitment to the values and ideals of the therapeutic community drug-free treatment movement has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to recover control of their lives from the throes of addiction and to go on to become valued and contributing members of society.

Works

More photos

• book

  • We Mainline Dreams: The Odyssey House Story

    (The Odyssey House story is more than just history and sta...)

    1973
  • Drugs, Sex, Parents, And You

    (Dialogues between a doctor and a number of teenagers abou...)

    1972
  • Walk In My Shoes: An Odyssey Into Womanlife 1976

Views

Judianne Densen-Gerber was a leader in the field of childhood sexual abuse and its relationship to antisocial behaviour, including drug misuse. As a result, she sought and received, funding for the first Odyssey Parents and Children's program in order to break the cycle of childhood and generational abuse. She was an advocate for legislation against child pornography and other forms of sexual exploitation of children at a time when her views were seen as controversial, if not heretical.

Despite this, she advocated legislation to ensure the sexual exploitation and abuse of children would not continue, through the Odyssey House initiative called "The concerns of children". More than one million signatures were collected in the United States in support of this initiative and legislation was enacted as a result.

Densen-Gerber recognized the needs of many marginalized populations at a time when many others were suspicious and doubtful. She insisted on the inclusion of psychiatric services for the residents who had a condition which is now called "co-morbidity" - where someone has a co-occurring alcohol and other drugs problem, as well as a mental health problem. She insisted on the inclusion of psychotropic medication to assist in treating the condition at a time when others in her field shied away from dealing with this issue.

Connections

On June 14, 1958, Judianne Densen-Gerber married Michael M. Baden. They had five children: Trissa, Lindsey, Sarah, Jud, and Julianne, who died in the infantry. In 1997 the couple divorced.

Father:

Gustave Gerber

Mother:

Beatrice Densen

Son:

Judson Baden

Daughter:

Sarah Baden

Daughter:

Lindsey Baden

Daughter:

Trissa Baden

ex-spouse:

Michael M. Baden

Daughter:

Julianne Baden

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011