National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy
Peter Stastny received his medical degree from the University of Vienna and completed a psychiatric residency at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. Since then, Peter has conducted research on the effects of long-term institutionalization, family influence, peer support, self-help, and advance directives. He has been a consultant and founding member of several user-run organizations, and has provided advocacy and expert testimony in many cases dealing with psychiatric malpractice and forced treatment. Peter is also documentary film-maker and author of many scholarly and literary articles. He has worked with the Bureau of Recipient Affairs at the New York State Office of Mental Health. He served on the Boards of Windhorse Associates and NARPA and is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.
With Darby Penny and photographer Lisa Rinzler, Dr. Stastny was a guest curator of the New York State Museum's exhibit Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic in 2004. He and Darby Penney are currently at work on a book about the lives of some of the people whose suitcases were discovered in an abandoned attic at Willard State Hospital in rural New York State.