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Open Dialogue to strengthen community response to mental health

A meeting in Warrnambool on October 23 could change how the local community responds to mental health, particularly for young people.

The Exploration of Open Dialogue meeting will bring together individuals, service teams and organisational leaders to learn about how implementing the evidence-based approach can strengthen professional practice.

The Warrnambool meeting is being supported by WRAD Health,  CEO Alister Stevic said that as a growing community health organisation, WRAD Health was committed to integrated models of care that meet people where they are.

“This is an exciting opportunity as it connects with WRAD Health’s vision of a developing community health care with access to affordable health care,” Mr Stevic said.

“We are continually looking for opportunities to strengthen and expand our therapeutic approaches, and we are excited to be co-hosting this workshop as an opportunity to learn more about the Open Dialogue model and explore how elements of this approach could be adapted to further benefit the Warrnambool community we serve,” Mr Stevic said.

“We are inviting health professionals and practitioners who work in mental health, primary care, youth and community services to discover an approach that improves workforce capability, reduces hospitalisation and diminishes crises response. It also enables our services in the community to work more collaboratively, with possible support to do so.”

The Open Dialogue approach includes network meetings where instead of treating an individual alone, professionals invite family, friends, and anyone else the person trusts into the same room from day one.

It also includes non-expert facilitators where healthcare professionals step down from traditional “expert” roles to act as neutral facilitators who listen and encourage open conversation rather than enforcing top-down diagnoses. No treatment choices—including medications or other therapies—are made behind closed doors; everything is decided transparently as a group.

Mr Stevic thanked the Fletcher Jones Family Foundation which is also supporting the Warrnambool event.

Open Dialogue Centre CEO, Keith Bryant said the approach was changing how communities respond to mental health — starting with connection, not crisis.

“Open Dialogue shifts the focus from crisis-driven care by enabling people to shape their recovery journey with support from family, friends, lived experience peers and local services,” Mr Bryant said.

Mr Bryant said the approach was already working well in other regional areas. “In Shepparton, an entire region is already reshaping its response through Goulburn Region Open Dialogue Connect,” he said. “Now it’s Warrnambool’s turn to explore what this could mean locally.”

Open Dialogue is an evidence-based approach to mental health that centres people in their own care — connected to family, friends, peers and local services in a grounded community network. It becomes core to the mental health response within services or across a whole community where multiple services coordinate this way of working.

The Warrnambool event will be facilitated by Mark Hopfenbeck, Senior Trainer in Open Dialogue who has 20 years of experience training mental health teams internationally and has been closely involved in Goulburn Region Open Dialogue Connect (GRODC), and Anita McCurdy, a Senior Manager of Open Dialogue & Youth Foyer at Berry Street Yooralla, a key community partner in GRODC.

People can register for the Warrnambool meeting by visiting Warrnambool – Open Dialogue Centre.