Gariy Livshits

Gariy Livshits, LMSW, LCAT, MM, SIFI, CRPA, is a social worker, creative arts therapist, and musician with more than 20 years of experience in a vast variety of settings with different populations. Gariy immigrated from Belarus in the early 1990s and began his social services career at FEGS Continuing Day Treatment Program where he worked as a social worker and music therapist. He began his tenure at the New York State Office of Mental Health Manhattan Psychiatric Center as an intensive case manager, delivering rehabilitative and restorative services to patients with severe mental illness, dual diagnoses, and forensic backgrounds. He later transferred to the inpatient facility as a treatment team leader, directing multidisciplinary teams on the Inpatient and Intensive Psychiatric Unit Discharge Planning Team as well as the sex offender treatment program

Gariy also worked as a senior housing associate at the New York State Office of Addictions Services and Supports where he managed a contract portfolio of voluntary housing agencies and implemented standards and methods to measure effectiveness of agency activities. Gariy has since returned to the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, where he worked as treatment team leader in the Quality/Risk Management department, conducting standardized program reviews, writing facility-wide policies, and serving as a language access coordinator. He has also worked as a Coordinator for Forensic Intensive Case Management Services at Central New York Psychiatric Center, where he supervised a staff of case managers providing services to people who were recently released from prison and have a history of mental illness.

Currently, Gariy works at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, where he is a Program Evaluation Specialist providing administrative oversight for Washington Heights community services. He also provides field instruction to MSW students from universities all across the country. To give back to his local community, Gariy spends countless hours of his spare time working at Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, helping children and families to achieve stability and functional improvement in daily living.

Gariy received his bachelor of music degree in choral conducting and piano performance from Molodechno School of Music in Belarus, his BA in general music from CUNY, City College of New York, his master’s in music therapy from Illinois State University, and his MSW from CUNY Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College. Currently, Gariy is working on his DSW at the University of Kentucky.