Open Dialogue and its Relevance to the NHS: Opinions of NHS Staff and Service Users

Open Dialogue is a model of mental health services that originated in Finland and has since, been taken up in trial teams worldwide. As this is a relatively unknown approach in the UK, it is important to tentatively explore perspectives of NHS staff and service-users. Sixty-one Open Dialogue conference attendees, both staff and service-users, were recruited for this study. A feedback questionnaire was administered to determine the extent to which they believed the key tenets of Open Dialogue were important to service user care, and the extent to which they existed within current NHS services. Analysis of data demonstrated a strong consensus on the importance of the key principles of Open Dialogue for mental health care and also moderate disagreement that these principles exist within current NHS service provision. The Open Dialogue principles may offer a useful framework in order to develop services in a clinically meaningful way.