Caption: From left to right, Nina Dawson, Sonia Skidmore, Gareth Jarvis, Keith Bryant, Ali Wragg, Liam Hallett, Fiona Eastmond
Open Dialogue between Australia and the UK
by Keith Bryant
Greetings from the UK, where I am currently visiting as many people and services as I can to create new relationships and a close dialogue between the Open Dialogue Centre in Australia and those who are adopting the approach across services in the UK.
A few days into my arrival, I was fortunate to meet with the Kent and Medway NHS Partnership Trust. They invited me to join day 18 of their 20 day training in Open Dialogue, which was facilitated by Yasmin Ishaq, an Open Dialogue trainer consultant, psychotherapist and clinical supervisor
I also met with teams involved in Central and North West London’s Open Dialogue pilot in Westminster, including the Community Mental Health Hub, Crisis Resolution And Home Treatment team and we discussed Open Dialogue training, early outcomes and the day-to-day realities of embedding the approach in practice. They showed great interest in the work we are doing to shape community-based responses (in the Goulburn Region and Townsville for example) and First Nations experiences of Open Dialogue – around the world. I had a great conversation with Gareth Jarvis who is Medical Director and who interviewed me for his Open POD podcast about Peer Supported Open Dialogue.
This was a hugely inspiring visit and I have many insights that I’m excited to share with the team and our partners on my return. The bottom line is that although we are separated geographically, we share similar challenges and aspirations when it comes to implementing change – not just within a service, but in a way that fundamentally changes the mental health system.
On that note, please read my recent article ‘Three ways to support young people with mental ill-health’, published in Pearls and Irritations – an Australian platform for the exchange of ideas, informed analysis and commentary on issues that matter to Australians.
I look forward to the coming weeks where I will be meeting with key people about the ODDESSI results which are due to be published in the next few months. For those who don’t know, ODDESSI is a large randomised control trial, researching the effectiveness of Open Dialogue in crisis and continuing metal health care within the National Health Service in the UK.
Keith Bryant, CEO