An introduction to peer-supported open dialogue in mental healthcare

Abstract

SummaryPeer-supported open dialogue is a variant of the ‘open dialogue’ approach that is currently practised in Finland and is being trialled in several countries around the world. The core principle of the approach is the provision of care at the social network level, by staff who have been trained in family, systems and related approaches. These staff include peer workers, who will help to enhance the democratic nature of the meetings around which care is centred, as well as enabling such meetings to occur where networks are fragmented or lacking. Certain organisational and practice features and underlying themes are key to the approach. Crucially, open dialogue is also a system of service provision. Staff trained in peer-supported open dialogue from six National Health Service (NHS) trusts will launch pilot teams in 2016, as part of an intended national multicentre randomised controlled trial.

The family-oriented open dialogue approach in the treatment of first-episode psychosis: Nineteen–year outcomes

“…guaranteed continuity of treatment between in-and outpatient clinics, covering the entire regional public healthcare system. Note also that the dialogical stance in treatment meetings has been viewed as a more collaborative way of working than that which would occur in most clinician-patient interactions (Razzaque and Stockmann, 2016). It should nevertheless be borne in mind that there could have been both resourceand culture-related differences in treatment practices between and within Finnish hospital districts (see Pirkola et al, 2009); hence, the control group in this study represents on merely a general level how treatment was initiated outside the Western Lapland catchment area.…”

Peer-supported Open Dialogue: a thematic analysis of trainee perspectives on the approach and training

“…Peer-supported Open Dialogue (POD) is a UK-developed modification of the OD approach (Razzaque & Stockmann, 2016). It employs the principles outlined above, and in addition, involves peer workers to bolster or create social networks and to enhance the democratic nature of network meetings.…”

Peer work in Open Dialogue: A discussion paper

“…Aspects of the Parachute NYC project have been incorporated into the POD approach in the UK, as another variant of the Finnish Open Dialogue approach. POD is being implemented across several NHS Trusts in the context of crisis/early intervention services (Razzaque & Stockmann ; Stockmann et al . ).…”

“…Aspects of the Parachute NYC project have been incorporated into the POD approach in the UK, as another variant of the Finnish Open Dialogue approach. POD is being implemented across several NHS Trusts in the context of crisis/early intervention services (Razzaque & Stockmann 2016;Stockmann et al 2017). Peer workers are proposed to be a core element of the POD model, and they, along with other staff, receive specialized POD training and regular team supervision.…”