Issue - meetings

Attached.

Carol White/Russell Razzaque.

14:35

 The Associate Medical Director of NELFT explained that the Open Dialogue method of mental health care saw service users with their network of family or friends rather than just individually. The technique had originated in Finland and had resulted in a 72% discharge rate from mental health services after two years and good outcomes had also been seen when the technique was introduced in the USA.

NELFT had organised the first training in the UK for Open Dialogue and it was aimed to launch a pilot of the treatment in late 2017. An academic board had been formed with University College London and Kings College and a bid had been submitted for £2.4 million of funding for a trial of Open Dialogue. It was hoped to announce in March if this funding had been received. Trial areas for the technique would be in Havering and Waltham Forest.

The Open Dialogue model could be used to deliver other types of care such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. The trial of the service would focus on adults in the 18-65 age range although it was possible Open Dialogue could be applied to mental health services for younger people in the future.

The technique was patient centred and no negative feedback had been received from service users. It was accepted that there was a link between Open Dialogue and physical healthcare and that this area needed to be explored more in the future. It was noted that there were also linkages between Open Dialogue and the training in systemic family therapy that the Council’s social workers were currently undertaking.