Finland in Boston? Applying Open Dialogue Ideals on a Psychotic Disorders Inpatient Teaching Unit

Abstract

This column argues for the importance of patient-centered approaches in psychiatry and describes the development and pilot implementation, inspired by the Finnish Open Dialogue model, of a program designed to increase the "patient-centeredness" of an inpatient psychotic disorders unit at McLean Hospital. Preliminary evidence shows that an inpatient psychiatry unit can implement patient-centered changes that are acceptable to staff and patients without additional cost or time.

Being recognised as a whole person: A qualitative study of inpatient experience in mental health

“…Open dialogue has been fostered as a means of treating hospitalised patients as equals (Seikkula, 2011), focussing on strengthening personal resources and normalising individual situations rather than focussing on regressive behaviour. Rosen and Stoklosa (2016) found that open dialogue can be used as an effective form of inpatient treatment in patient-centred care.…”

Open Dialogue: Frequently Asked Questions

“…Due to its potential as an alternative approach to mental health care, there has been increasing interest in Open Dialogue outside Finland. Over the last two decades, Open Dialogue has been introduced in health care services across Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, and the United States (for examples see Brottveit, ; Buus et al, ; Gordon et al, ; Holmesland, ; Razzaque & Wood, ; Rosen & Stoklosa, ). As Open Dialogue expands to settings outside of Finland, there is a need for contextually specific local adaptions of the approach and a need to understand successful implementation strategies, including Australian applications.…”

The association between Open Dialogue to young Danes in acute psychiatric crisis and their use of health care and social services: A retrospective register-based cohort study

“…While in conventional psychiatric practice, young people are usually seen by different professionals in separate sessions, Open Dialogue is a resource-oriented model of therapeutic intervention that promotes collaborative integrated care by means of network meetings between patient, family and social network members, and therapists, and a non-directive psychotherapeutic stance (Anderson andGehart, 2006, Gordon et al, 2016, Priebe et Rosen and Stoklosa, 2016). It was gradually developed in Finland during the 1980s to facilitate shared care service delivery in Western Lapland (Buus et al, 2017).…”