The Kanto Medical Center at NTT Hospital in Tokyo is the setting for  remarkable example of international and cross-disciplinary collaboration in the development of mental health care. In 2001, Dr Tsuyoshi Akayama  visited the UK with the intention of studying English approaches to the delivery of acute care. He and his nursing colleagues met some nurses at Newcastle and North Tyneside who were leading the implementation of the Tidal Model, within their wards. These nurses so inspired Dr Akayama that he returned to Japan with the training manual and video tapes, and translated these painstakingly into Japanese. He then organised training in the use of the Tidal Model for his nursing, medical, psychology and occupational therapy colleagues. Professor Akiyama is pictured here with Poppy, Phil and colleagues at the World Psychiatric Association Congress, Istanbul, 2006).

The rest, as the cliché says, is history! The team at NTT introduced the Tidal Model to their practice in a selective, experimental manner, using their weekly case conferences to review and discuss the experiences of the Model, from both staff and the patients' perspectives.

It has been our good fortune to have spent some time with Tsuyoshi and his colleagues, discussing their experiences of the Tidal Model - comparing notes and stories across the cultural and linguistic divide. It is immensely encouraging that our Japanese colleagues find so much of value in our approach to mental health care, especially since much of the original inspiration for the Tidal Model came from Oriental, and especially Japanese, philosophical and psychological influences -such as Zen Buddhism and Morita therapy. In one sense, in finding a home at NTT, the Tidal Model has returned home.