Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[CherryBomb]

Carers are invaluable to their loved one’s emotional well-being. Yet, they are often left feeling unheard and uninvolved in their loved one’s treatment when they are experiencing a crisis. This not only impacts on them but also their loved one’s well-being.  

‘Open Dialogue’ addresses the exclusion that can occur when carers are left out of important conversations about their loved one’s mental distress. It emphasizes bringing people together, to have a dialogue, between the person experiencing the crisis and their social network so that they can manage the crisis together with the support of mental health professionals. It offers an alternative perspective to mental distress trusting that solutions are created as a consequence of having Dialogue and support.

In some respects it’s a ‘new’ alternative approach to treatment. But it’s also not just a formal approach that needs to be guided a mental health expert. In fact, its principles can be incorporated into our daily lives as carers.

Join us this this month when we chat with @Flick, mental health peer worker, Open Dialogue student and 2015 Sane Hocking Fellowship recipient. @Flick is not only informed by her research but by her own lived experiences. We will discuss Open Dialogue, its approach, and the ways that you can apply its principles into your life so that you and your loved ones can better navigate crisis and beyond.

 Have a question, but won't be able to make the session? Leave your question over here

If you're planning on joining us, hit the 'like' button below 🙂

[CherryBomb]

Good Evening Forumnites, 

@Cat64 @Shaz51 and @Spiral

Welcome to our special guest @Flick!

To start off with, @Flick can you give us a brief overview of what open dialogue is about?

[BeHappy]

Hello @CherryBomb and @Flick

I'm curious to know more about 'open dialogue'. Looking forward to hearing what @Flick has to say. 

[Flick]

For sure, please excuse my slowness at adjusting to the technology!

Open Dialogue is both a way of structuring service responses to someone in an emotional crisis who has contacted the service seeking support (it may be a person in crisis themselves, or a concerned family member or even a school teacher, etc). The idea on this level is to respond to people immediately, in their context, with their social network, and to have consistency in staff being involved. Also, nothing is done behind the backs of the network (e.g. no staff meetings without the person and their family) - that's the "open" part.

Open Dialogue is also a way to engage with people - rather than just diagnosing, hospitalising and medicating people, the approach believes that open dialogue opens up new meaning, new possibilities, new ways of responding to what is going on, together. It isn't about changing anyone, but really listening to everyone's perspective. Professionals may offer their input, but they do not make the decisions - the whole network works together to come to agreements.

[Flick]

I'll say more, if that's ok, knowing that there may be overlap while someone else is typing!

Open Dialogue began in Finland in the 1980s, and has been researched intensively since then, mainly in the context of responding to people experiencing a first episode of psychosis. The outcomes are really impressive - people seem to have their needs responded to so well that they don't tend to become chronically unwell.

[CherryBomb]

Thanks @Flick

And welcome to the conversation @BeHappy and @LivingAdl

@Flick that sounds like a great approach as I've heard of many instances when carers have felt out of the loop. 

Can you tell us about how/if you can access this?

[BeHappy]

it sounds like a wonderful approach @Flick, but what can be done if health professionals don't take this approach?

I often that us carers at recieving end of what every the health system wishes to dispense - meaning it often feels like we have little say. 

[Flick]

At the moment, Open Dialogue is mainly an idea, or an inspiration in Australia, something that a few clinicians, a few services and a few individuals (totally many hundreds altogether) are talking about and have had a small amount of training in. 

For example, there is a Headspace service in Melbourne who have been influenced by Open Dialogue - many of their staff have had a day of training in it, and they have been reading and trying to better understand it.

We don't yet have an infrastructure so that it becomes more available to people.

But, that said, I think we can all encourage services to be more dialogical, and we can ourselves be more dialogical.

[Cat64]

Thanks for the run down @Flick. This sounds fascinating. I feel my husband and I are at crisis point now. He is going back to hospital tomorrow after a failed rial at home. I have left the house and don't really know where to go from here.Feeling very isolated

[CherryBomb]

to touch on your point about living more dialogically. One thing you and I have spoken about offline @Flick is how people can integrate this approach into their daily life with their loved one given that there is no 'formal' treatment.

Can you tell us a bit more about this?