Open dialogue: critical points of implementation in psychotic crisis care

Abstract This study sought to analyze the critical points to implement the Open Dialogue approach in psychotic crisis care. This qualitative study was based on the analysis of an open-ended questionnaire developed by mental health professionals who participated in a seminar on the subject conducted by Jaakko Seikkula in 2015, in Italy. Eighty-three self-administered questionnaires were analyzed to detect the participants’ sociodemographic profile and their perception of the critical points of the implementation of Open Dialogue. The results were organized according to the seven principles of the approach and analyzed according to Weber’s Ideal Type into two Ideal Types: organizational and cultural criticalities. In the participants’ perception, the implementation in Italy of this therapeutic modality does not seem obstacle-free. The principles of greatest concern among nurses and physicians were immediate help, social networking, flexibility, and mobility. This paper thus reflected on the impasses regarding the need for a reframing in the conceptions, organizations, knowledge and practices of community mental health care in the context of deinstitutionalization.