Psychiatry within Addiction and Incarceration

Jack Kuo

General and Addiction Psychiatrist

Dr. Jack Kuo was trained in general and addiction psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Dr. Kuo began working in mental health and addiction treatment as a volunteer at the Youth Outreach (YO!) drop-in center for homeless adolescents in Waikiki. He then worked as a residential counselor at a group home for at-risk youth as well as the Safe Haven residential program for the homeless mentally ill in Honolulu. During medical school Dr. Kuo worked as a community health outreach worker providing needle exchange, condoms, and harm-reduction based preventive education to IV drug users and sex workers. After completing his addiction psychiatry training Dr. Kuo served as the Director of Psychiatric Services at the residential treatment center Promises Malibu for 12 years where he treated a range of patients including celebrities, professional athletes, and business executives. He recently retired from working at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison system after 23 years of service. In addition, he has worked at many other mental health and addiction treatment centers at the residential, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient levels of care. Currently Dr. Kuo has a private practice in Santa Monica, is the Director of Psychiatric Services at StartUp Wellness, and works as an independent contract psychiatrist at the Los Angeles County jail system. He has done numerous presentations at national and international mental health and addiction conferences on topics ranging from updates on treatment of methamphetamine use disorder to borderline personality to videogame addiction.