Professor Thomas Trauer BA (Hons), PhD

Formerly Professor of Psychiatry, St Vincent’s Hospital, University of Melbourne, Australia

Tom Trauer, who has died aged 68, was a leading researcher in psychiatric outcome measurement and advocate for mental health service development. His 2010 book, Outcome Measurement in Mental Health: Theory and Practice, and his many peer-reviewed articles on this subject advanced the field significantly, while his work with colleagues in Australia and across the world led to numerous collaborations to improve mental health service delivery across the Asia Pacific region.

As well as his major research interests in mental health outcomes and service delivery, Tom collaborated on research into the mental health of people with physical illness, transplant recipients, caregivers and patients with cancer. He was generous with his time and frequently supported junior researchers, providing patient advice and assistance with statistical analysis. His passion for education led to university lecturing, research supervision, clinical teaching and coordination of the statistics component of Melbourne University’s Master of Psychological Medicine degree. His considerable output included two books and around 200 peer-reviewed publications, of which he was the primary author for nearly half.

After fleeing Eastern Europe to England during the Second World War, Tom’s family moved to Adelaide in 1949, when Tom (born 10 November 1944 in Manchester) was 5 years old. His father repeated his medical degree to practise in Australia. Eventually settling in Melbourne, Tom attended Brighton Grammar, before completing his BA in psychology at Melbourne University, where he met his future wife, Barbara.

Returning to England in 1971, Tom completed his PhD on deviant behaviour among patients in a therapeutic community at King’s College London. While in the UK, he married, had two sons and held positions as a senior clinical psychologist and Honorary Lecturer at Guy’s Hospital. He subsequently took a management role in the Camberwell Health Authority and became head of the Psychology Department at King’s College London.

On returning to Australia in 1989, Tom worked as a senior psychologist in Victorian public mental health services at Mont Park and Larundel hospitals, before increasingly focusing on research through the 1990s. By the time of his death, he was a Professorial Fellow at St Vincent’s Hospital (the University of Melbourne), an Honorary Professor at Monash University and a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of Wollongong.

Tom’s interest in service development and evaluation led to extensive involvement with the Mental Health Services Conference of Australia and New Zealand (TheMHS), of which he had been an active participant or committee member since its inception in 1991. (The Conference will provide an award in Tom’s name to support service evaluation from 2014 onwards.) His expertise in this area also led to travel to countries such as China, Qatar, Laos, Vietnam, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Canada, Israel, England and Scotland, where he was a member of the Schizophrenia Protocol Development Group.

Tom will be remembered for his generosity, collaborative nature, pioneering research and desire to foster psychiatric service development in the Asia Pacific region. He died on 10 July 2013 after a short illness and is survived by his wife and sons, Michael and James.