Treatment involving patient’s family cuts mental health hospital admissions, study finds

The sessions allow a free-flowing conversation about how the patient feels, what help they would like and how that may be achieved. It also allows the “network” to talk about what they have observed about the patient and their own feelings.

Dr Travers said although the network meetings were longer than a normal appointment, the patients need fewer of them.

“It enables you to reach a much firmer and deeper understanding of the underlying reasons for the problems and indeed to seek solutions that come very much from the person and their family,” he said.

The study, led by University College London, involved 500 patients that had approached mental health services in crisis. They were split into two groups – one was entered into Open Dialogue, the other received treatment as usual.

Researchers found there was no significant difference in whether a patient had a relapse of their illness. But, as well as the reduction in need for psychiatric hospital, if patients in the Open Dialogue group did need to be admitted, the length of time they spent there was on average half that of the other group.

There were also improvements in how the patients felt about their wellbeing and recovery.

Dr Russell Razzaque, a consultant psychiatrist and the clinical lead on the trial, said this could have significant implications for how the NHS runs psychiatric care.

“There’s a substantial reduction in cost because you’re not spending all the money on inpatient beds, which are the most expensive part of the system,” he said.

“So yes, you might be spending a bit more time in the community, but that is what the NHS wants.”

However, consultant psychiatrist Dr Sameer Jauhar feels the benefits seen in the trial might be explained by the extra resources put into it, and that more research is needed.

“The important question is whether the distinctive, resource-intensive elements of Open Dialogue itself add benefit beyond good, adequately staffed community care. On the evidence of this trial, that question remains unresolved,” he said.

But for Farah, Open Dialogue was the right intervention for Nihad.

“It needs somebody to hear him, somebody to understand him, how he feels, what he’s trying to even to achieve. They are helping him and then he sees a better picture,” she said.