Eric J. Mathews, MD is a California-based psychiatrist and long-time advocate for the human rights of people with disabilities. He serves on the Board of Directors of Disability Rights International (DRI), where he has worked since 2009 in various capacities—including as an advocate, Associate Director, and now board member.
Dr. Mathews began his career leading human rights investigations into orphanages, psychiatric facilities, and social care homes in Eastern Europe and Latin America. He has conducted over two dozen fact-finding missions across Ukraine, the Republic of Georgia, Serbia, Kosovo, and Mexico, documenting abuses against children and adults with disabilities.
He is the lead author of DRI’s reports Left Behind: The Exclusion of Children and Adults with Disabilities from Reform and Rights Protection in the Republic of Georgia (2013); International Collaboration for Inclusion: Lessons from Ukraine, A Study Funded by the US Department of State (2014); and No Way Home: The Exploitation and Abuse of Children in Ukraine’s Orphanages (2015). His reports have been covered by the Associated Press; BBC World News; Voice of America; The Guardian; Vatican Radio, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.
His investigative work has contributed to national and international reforms, including the adoption of new national guidelines mandating medical care of children with hydrocephalus who were denied life-saving interventions in the country’s orphanages (as profiled by PBS’s The Visionaries documentary series). He has presented testimony to U.S. and international bodies, including the Food and Drug Administration, United Nations, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His public education efforts include lectures at law schools, schools of public health, and medical institutions, and his published reports have advanced global understanding of the dangers of psychiatric institutionalization and the need for community-based alternatives.
Dr. Mathews is now the founder and medical director of a private psychiatry practice based in California, where he provides evidence-based care to adults navigating anxiety, depression, attention challenges, trauma, and life transitions. Drawing from his background in global advocacy, he brings a trauma-informed, dignity-centered approach to mental healthcare.
He earned his M.D. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed his psychiatry residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He continues to serve on expert working groups focused on the ethical use of emerging treatments—including psychedelic therapies—for PTSD and other psychiatric conditions.
More information about his clinical work can be found at mathewsmd.org.