Update from our Coastal West Country Site 

Liana has produced a preliminary findings report based on her interviews and participant observation with practitioners and clients in our Coastal West Country site. The report was presented to Trust directors and is already shaping policy regarding Open Dialogue training and practice. We hope to be able to share these findings with you all soon!

Update from London

Darren organised a meeting of Open Dialogue Implementation Network (ODIN), bringing together organisations interested in integrating dialogic principles into their mental health and social support practice. They heard and discussed presentations about the ODDESSI clinical trial, a thesis on implementing Open Dialogue in the NHS, and developments in Kent and Hackney. If you or your organisation is interested in joining the ODIN group, please email Milena at mw85@soas.ac.uk.

Ongoing collaborations

Milena, our newest team member, attended a week of residential Peer-Supported Open Dialogue training in Cambridge at the beginning of January. She joined the biggest training cohort yet, comprising over 200 mental health practitioners, support workers and peers from across England for an intense week of learning, introspection and dialogic role play. The experience brought together a diverse community interested in seeing change in treatment models and management structures within the NHS. A HUGE thanks to the Open Dialogue advocates who made this opportunity possible!

A winter day in Cambridge, site of the residential Peer-supported Open Dialogue training.

On January 27th, we also held a meeting of the APOD Advisory Board, which produced many useful insights about our findings and next steps.

Upcoming events

Our APOD team is convening a panel at the UK Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) conference, ‘An Unwell World? Anthropology in a Speculative Mode’, which will take place at SOAS on April 11-14th. Last month we launched a call for papers and received a fantastic response! Thanks to all who submitted abstracts, and we hope to see many of you in April. You can register for the conference here from February.

We are preparing a full-day event to showcase the findings and outputs of our study. This will take place on September 12, 2023 at SOAS University. We will launch our publicity campaign for this event soon, but, in the meantime, mark your calendars!

 

Keep in touch 

Follow us on Twitter @APOD_UK or visit our new website (anthropology-opendialogue.org) to subscribe to our newsletter. 

Reach out to us via Twitter or email (soasapod@gmail.com) if you’re interested in learning more about our project or about Open Dialogue in the UK! We’d love to hear from you.