Open Dialogue for severe mental illness (ODDESSI)

Open Dialogue (OD) is an approach for working with people in crisis. An OD team works with the service user from initial crisis and beyond, organising treatment and longer term care to prevent crises recurring. In contrast to crisis teams, OD places a greater emphasis on working with the service user, their families and friends, and others (for example healthcare professionals) to form a network of support. This network is the basis for making treatment decisions which can lead to better long-term outcomes for service users. This project will assess whether OD can be used to treat people in crisis, and become part of routine care in the NHS. In addition, we will investigate whether OD is good value for money, and what changes need to be made to mental health services to ensure that OD can become integrated in NHS care.

Principal Investigator: Prof Stephen Pilling

Project Staff: Dr Manuel Gomes

Collaborators: Dr Mark Hopfenbeck (TNT, Norway), Prof Sabine Landau (KCL), Prof Sonia Johnson, Prof Doug Ziedonis (MIT)

Funder: NIHR

Start Date: 2015

Project Duration: 5 years

Contact: m.gomes@ucl.ac.uk

Webpage: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/pals/research/clinical-educational-and-health-psychology/research-groups/oddessi