Eileen M. Small, MSW

About Eileen Small

Eileen M. Small, MSW, is  Research Project Director in the Open Dialogue Team  at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) – a multi-disciplinary team led by Drs. Douglas Ziedonis (PI) and Mary Olson (Co-I) of the UMMS Department of Psychiatry, in collaboration with Dr. Jaakko Seikkula and his colleagues at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, to prepare the Finnish “Open Dialogue” for adaptation and implementation in the U.S.

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Eileen M. Small, MSW, is a Research Project Director at the University of Massachusetts Medical School – Worcester, US. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Counseling / Department of Education) degree from the  University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Master of Social Work degree from Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Eileen has worked in the fields of Psychiatry Research, and Behavioral and Preventive Medicine Research for 25 years. Prior to her research career, she worked with children and adolescents (in residential and educational settings).

At Brown University Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island, Eileen held various positions within the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior.  She participated in many National Institute of Health research projects and a MacArthur Foundation grant.

In June, 2014, Eileen attended a lecture at Smith College School for Social Work on the Finnish Open Dialogue approach to mental health treatment.  The presentation was given by Dr. Mary Olson, who was Eileen’s family therapy teacher during graduate school.  Dr. Olson described the ongoing Open Dialogue research project at UMass Medical School being led by Douglas Ziedonis, MD, MPH, and funded by the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care.

In March, 2015, Eileen joined the UMass Open Dialogue Team as Research Project Director, to help implement this study which is entitled: “Adapting the Open Dialogue Model in the United States: Developing and Piloting an Organizational Change Approach & Behavioral Therapy Manual.”

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