Hearing Voices Network Aotearoa NZ- Te Reo Orooro

HEARING VOICES NETWORK AOTEAROA NZ

www.hearingvoices.org.nz 

Are pleased to host an educational evening on

“OPEN DIALOGUE” with Jaana Castella.

an innovative approach to acute psychiatric crises developed by Jaakko Seikkula, Markku Sutela, and their multidisciplinary team at Keropudas Hospital in Tornio, Finland. Jaana is a psychiatric nurse from the Region of Sjaelland who is trained in the “Open Dialogue” technique with Jaako Seikkula and Tom Anderson in 1999 and has been working with people with psychosis using this method and educating others in the techniques.

WHAT IS OPEN DIALOGUE?

Fundamental to the approach is the shift away from an immediate emphasis on trying to eradicate symptoms.   The conversation, or dialogue, is not “about” the person, but a way of “being with” them and living through the crisis together.  What Tom Andersen M.D. called “withness practices” mitigates the sense of isolation and distance a frightening episode can produce and leads to a path of recovery. 

Starting in the eighties, there have been a variety of research studies of Open Dialogue and its outcomes with early psychosis.The results consistently show that this approach reduces hospitalization, the use of medication, and recidivism when compared with treatment as usual. For example, in a five-year study, 83% of patients had returned to their jobs or studies or were looking for a job (Seikkula et al. 2006), In the same study, 77% did not have any residual symptoms. Such outcomes led the Finnish National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health to award a prize recognizing the Keropudas group for “the ongoing development of psychiatric care over a period of ten years.”                                                                           http://www.dialogicpractice.net/open-dialogue%E2%84%A0/

See a video trailer about the Open Dialogue method here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBjIvnRFja4

We also have GUEST SPEAKER:  ANNIE CHAPMAN

talking about her Hikoi for Healthy Choices for those with mental illness.  Annie has been walking from Cape Reinga to Wellington to raise awareness of the need for the government to provide better options for those diagnosed with mental illness. Open Dialogue  is one of the treatment options Annie would like to see implemented in New Zealand.  Come and hear about why Annie is walking, and sign her petition for change.

http://hikoiforhealthychoices.wordpress.com/

When: 6.30 to 8.30 PM Monday 27^th May 2013

Where: Newtown Community Center, cnr of Colombo and Rintoul Sts, Newtown Wellington.

Cost: $20 for waged , Gold coin Koha for Unwaged. We are a registered charity. These fees will help pay expenses, and support sending our members to the World  Voices Congress in Melbourne this year.

The following article is written by one of our support group Facilitators and was published in our May 2009 newsletter. 

Distraction techniques such as the use of MP3 players  can be helpful to relieve  distress from voices. But to be able to take control of your voices, you must accept that there is some link with yourself. Once this happens you start to take responsibility for your recovery and can start to work out the meaning of the voices. I  would like to share some of my insights with you in  the hope they may help to do this.

Voices can be similar to dreams and nightmares. You can have good and bad experiences, which can be very profound and very real. Some people describe hearing voices like dreaming when awake. Interestingly one of the  triggers for psychosis is sleep deprivation. Just as in dreams the voices can be presented in a symbolic way that makes it hard to see the association with ourselves. The voices may have larger than life personas that exaggerate the emotion involved making it hard to understand, Just as Shakespeare tells stories that portray common themes and emotions , but we have to see past the costume and language before we can understand what is happening.