Richard Warner is Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado. He was Medical Director of the Mental Health Center of Boulder County, the public mental health facility for a population of nearly 300,000 people in the Front Range of Colorado, for 29 years until September, 2005.

While at the Mental Health Center of Boulder County, Dr Warner helped to develop a comprehensive community support system for people with serious mental illness that has earned an international reputation. The system includes a residential treatment program for people with serious mental illness (originally called Cedar House, now Warner House), at which Dr. Warner was the Chief Psychiatrist. At the Mental Health Center of Boulder County, Dr. Warner also helped design and develop:

• A variety of community-based alternatives to the hospital for the treatment of people with acute psychiatric problems.
• An innovative jail-diversion program for people with mental illness.
• Programs to employ people with mental illness, including a specialist pharmacy for people with mental illness that employed people with mental illness as pharmacy technicians.
• Regular public education on mental illness.

Dr. Warner is the author of a number of books including:

• Recovery from Schizophrenia (third edition: Brunner-Routledge, 2004),
• The Environment of Schizophrenia (Brunner-Routledge, 2000), and
• Alternatives to the Hospital for Acute Psychiatric Treatment (American Psychiatric Press, 1995).

With Julian Leff, he co-authored Social Inclusion of People with Mental Illness, which was published by Cambridge University Press in 2006. Dr. Warner’s books have been translated into seven languages. Much of his research has focused on social factors that impact the course of mental illness.

Beginning in 1995, Dr. Warner helped direct Open the Doors, a global campaign of the World Psychiatric Association to combat the stigma of schizophrenia. He was closely involved in two of the anti-stigma programs launched by Open the Doors – in Calgary, Alberta, and in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Warner lectures and consults in several countries around the world on a regular basis. He has visiting faculty appointments at two universities in Great Britain and is on the editorial boards of professional journals in four countries.

He earned the “Heroes in the Fight” award from the Colorado branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2005, and the Nancy Roeske Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He has been listed in Best Doctors in America since 1996.

Professor Richard Warner