Born and raised in California, Dr.
Mosher received his B.A. from Stanford University and M.D.,
with honors, from Harvard Medical School in 1961, where
he also subsequently took his psychiatric training. He
was Clinical Director of Mental Health Services for San
Diego, California from 7/96 to 11/98and remains a
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the School of
Medicine, University of California at San Diego. One of
his principal tasks in San Diego was the implementation
of a managed care system for public sector adult clients.
From 1988-96 he was Chief Medical Director of Montgomery
County Marylands Department of Addiction, Victim and
Mental Health Services and a Clinical Professor of
Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences, F. Edward Herbert School of Medicine. In
his role in Montgomery County, he helped establish a
number of innovative programs, including a consumer owned
and operated computer company and a new residential
alternative to psychiatric hospitalization for persons in
crisis.
His professional training and
experience is both extensive and wide-ranging. He
received research training at the National Institute of
Mental Health (NIMH) Intramural Research Program in
Bethesda, Maryland and at the Tavistock Clinic in London.
From 1968-80 he was the first Chief of NIMH's Center for
Studies of Schizophrenia. While with the NIMH he founded
and served as first Editor-in-Chief of the Schizophrenia
Bulletin.
From 1970 to 1992 he was a
collaborating investigator, then Research Director, of
the Soteria Project - Community Alternatives for the
Treatment of Schizophrenia. In this role, he was
instrumental in developing and researching an innovative,
non-drug, non-hospital, home-like, residential treatment
facility for acutely psychotic persons. The many
publications from this experiment demonstrate both the
feasibility and cost-effectiveness of its non-traditional
approach to the treatment of persons newly identified as
having schizophrenia. Continuing his career long interest
in clinical research Dr. Mosher more recently (1990 -
1996) has been the Principal Investigator of a Center for
Mental Health Services(CMHS) research/demonstration grant
for the first study to compare clinical outcomes and
costs of long term seriously mentally ill public-sector
clients("frequent flyers" randomly assigned (with
no psychopathology based exclusion criteria) to a
residential alternative to hospitalization or the
psychiatric ward of a local general hospital (the McPath
project). Its findings, comparable clinical effectiveness
with a 40% cost saving favoring the alternative, have
important acute care implications.
In 1980, while based at the University
of Verona Medical School, Dr. Mosher conducted an in-depth
study of Italy's revolutionary new mental health system.
He documented that a new National Health Service
supported system of catchmented community care could stop
admissions to large state hospitals enabling them to be
phased down and eventually closed. He also showed that
where the mandated community system was implemented
properly there were no adverse consequences for patients
or the community.
In his legal/psychiatric work Dr.
Mosher was expert witness for the plaintiffs in two
successful class action suites related to forced
medication of psychiatric patients (N.J.; Renie vs. Klein,
1978; CA; Jamison vs. Farribee 1983). He is currently
expert witness for the plaintiffs in four class action
suites (MD, VA, DC &AZ) against Psychiatric
Institutes of America(PIA) and National Medical
Enterprises(NME) for medical malpractice and insurance
fraud (1994-present).
As a clinician, Dr. Mosher specializes
in family and adolescent treatment, community psychiatry
program consultation, and staff training. As a teacher,
he is an acknowledged expert at conveying the essential
and critical aspects of the interviewing process to
students at all levels.
In addition to over 100 articles and
reviews, Dr. Mosher has edited books on the Psychotherapy
of Schizophrenia and on Milieu Treatment. His
book, Community Mental Health: Principles and Practice,
written with his Italian colleague, Dr. Lorenzo Burti,
was published by W.W. Norton in 1989. A revised, updated,
abridged paperback version, Community Mental Health: A
Practical Guide, appeared in 1994. It has been
translated into five languages. Most recently he has
founded his own consulting company, Soteria Associates, to
provide individual, family and system consultation using the breadth of
experience described above.
Dr. Mosher died July 10th, 2004.
03/05/2000; Revised April 8th, 2005; defunct
address removed April 18th, 2007.