Psychiatrists and Open Dialogue
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Where biologically-oriented psychiatry is the default perhaps the only response to mental health crises, it may be hard to see how radically different Open Dialogue actually is. Including social networks in crisis response might seem like a simple (even obvious) extension of “treatment as usual.” It may even seem like or become an extension of case management, and compliance. Medical schools train their students to take control and responsibility in a crisis; to provide comfort and reassurance to people who are suffering and afraid, by providing solutions with an authoritative voice.
Psychiatrists in Open Dialogue, however, work within teams in which their expertise, though valued, is but one voice in a process based on the belief that any one person’s mental health depends on conditions in which all voices will be heard, and responded to.