Clinicians and supervisors' experiences with developing practices of open dialogue in network meetings in public mental health services

Abstract

Open Dialogue is a dialogical approach focusing on the perspectives of patients and their social networks on treatment and recovery processes. As part of a larger research project, this prospective cohort study explores what promotes and hinders the development of Open Dialogue in network meetings (ODNM) based on the experiences of thirty-seven clinicians and seven supervisors. Multistage focus group interviews were used to collect data and were analysed thematically. We generated two main themes: (1) togetherness and isolation and (2) challenging and evolving. The findings show that ODNM can be developed in public mental healthcare, but this leads to both challenges and opportunities at the organisational level, such as conflicting perspectives, the difficulty of maintaining interest in ODNM, the need for committed and involved leaders, and the growing change in the traditional view of treatment, which has made clinicians collaborate more with patients and their relatives.

Editorial

“…Ritva Kyrrø Jacobsen and colleagues (2023) explore clinicians and supervisors' experiences with developing practices of open dialogue in network meetings in public mental health services in a prospective cohort study. The joys and challenges of developing open dialogue practices explored and the importance of having passionate leaders and advocates for the method who can influence the broader system is noted.…”