Developing, adapting and disseminating treatments: Using open-source methods and technologies to build capacity in transprofessional and transdiagnostic practices for diverse areas of need

Abstract

Given the huge gap between the prevalence of mental health needs and access to evidence-based interventions, affordable and scalable innovations are at a premium – especially those that intervene in complex systems requiring effective interprofessional, interagency and informal partnering collaborations. The collaborative production method developed in the field of software development known as open-source programming, and the use of products developed by such processes, in particular ‘wikis’ (used as the development space for an approach and training curriculum) may offer benefits. A brief description of open-source processes and an open-source wiki is provided, with Adaptive Mentalization-Based Integrative Treatment (AMBIT, a systemic and organisational application of the mentalizing stance) offered as an example of how these resources created a context for one treatment innovation that has subsequently supported formal trainings and ‘soft influence’ across hundreds of teams worldwide, serving a diverse range of populations (child, adolescent and adult, in a range of mental health, social care and forensic settings) that all share presenting features of multiple complex and intersecting needs, high risk and low response to conventional ‘unimodal’ treatment offers.