Open Dialogue Webinar

Community Development, Poverty and Mental Health

The third webinar in the Voice, Equality, Experience, and Power (VEEP) series brought together experts and practitioners to explore the transformative potential of Open Dialogue and its role as a methodology in community development, mental health recovery, and fostering genuine connections between services, users, and families.  We were delighted to welcome 70 participants from across the island and from a range of backgrounds including statutory services, community and voluntary sector organisations, services users, and carers and family members of service users. 

Dr Liam MacGabhan, Dublin North/North East Recovery College led the session with an introduction to the concept of Open Dialogue. Triona Byrne, Recovery Academy Ireland, gave us an overview of her work using Community Open Dialogue to discuss joined up supports for people with a dual-mental health and addiction diagnosis in North Inner City Dublin.  Sabine Dick, Association Chaque Jour Compte, spoke about Open dialogue in an international context and Bernard Kenny, from CORE Ireland, introduced the concept of Trialogue, a process rooted in open, honest sharing and listening between service users, providers, and families. 

In the second part, everyone participated in a live open dialogue session to discuss the relationship between poverty, people and communities experiencing mental health difficulties. Co-facilitators, Liam and Bernard encouraged participants to share their experiences and perspectives on the topic, allowing the conversation to flow openly and naturally.

It was clear from the contributions from our speakers as well as our participants that the shared experiences of poverty and mental health in Ireland, north and south, are also universal experiences. Any future discussion on the absence of rights-based mental health services is not only a relevant for these islands, but a should be part of a global discussion.

To watch the recorded webinar please click here.

If you are interested in hearing more about our upcoming open dialogues on building  community development responses to poverty and mental health, and the work of the Voice, Equality, Experience, Power initiative, please email eleanormckenna@cdhn.org with your details.