Robert Crawford (psychiatrist)

Robert John Mackay Crawford MNZM (30 May 1941 – 4 August 2021) was a British-born New Zealand doctor who specialised in the treatment of alcoholism and addictions.

[3] Crawford remained a critic of the hospital's closure in 2003, blaming it on Rogernomics, and a focus on financial bottom lines which ignored the cost to society of untreated addictions and alcoholism.

He and a group of Hanmer residents set up The Queen Mary Reserve Trust Incorporated in 2003 to retain the land in public ownership.

[2] Crawford believed that to a great extent addictions could not be helped by medication and that patients needed to find ways of coping with their stresses through behavioural and psychological changes.

[2] He used ideas from social psychiatry and practised psychotherapy and psychodrama and recognised that the quality of the relationship and trust between doctor and patient is critical to successful therapy.

[2] He advocated for residential care as it removed patients from alcohol and drugs and relieved the pressure on addicts' families.