International Study Tour

The month-long tour will see the ODC team visiting key services implementing Open Dialogue across Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Boston, Belmont, Vermont, and Atlanta. 

The main objectives of the tour are to learn from international experiences of implementing Open Dialogue approaches and how we can apply these learnings in Australia. 

The team seeks to better understand how training in Open Dialogue provides professional teams with the support required to implement changes to their practice and, more broadly, across the mental health sector. 

The team will also learn how our international colleagues have evaluated the impact of Open Dialogue on individuals, their families, and their organisations. These learnings will help implement mental health support and best practice in Australia.

Although Open Dialogue has been primarily used for crisis and acute mental health care internationally, we would like to learn if Open Dialogue has been trialed within non-mental health settings, and if so, how the approach has been received.

We recognise that Open Dialogue can be highly beneficial for non-mental health organisations (education sector, at-risk youth, or homelessness organisations) that support young people, often through early intervention approaches. With our extended focus in this space, we look forward to also sharing our insights and work of ODC and some of our partners in Australia.

This tour will enhance our alliance with the international Open Dialogue network, enabling us to accelerate the adoption of an Open Dialogue approach in a way that maintains integrity to its principles while sharing our learnings with our Australian partners.