Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is one of the most prevalent mental disorders effecting up to 3% of the general population. A serious condition which can result in early death due to suicide, as well as from from self-neglect. Despite the NICE Guidance for OCD published in 2005, thousands of these patients are failing to receive adequate treatment. In many areas of the UK, people with OCD are offered treatment in IAPT. Patient’s experience in IAPT varies from receiving a few sessions of anxiety management training and, when this inevitably fails to produce any results, they are usually discharged. Even in services with a good knowledge and ability to deliver appropriate treatment for OCD, there is rarely any follow up and many patients relapse.
Such patients should, according to the 2005 NICE stepped care model, move on to secondary services where they should receive full psychiatric assessment, the offer of serotonin inhibiting drugs in sufficient dosage and more CBT with exposure and self-imposed response prevention. In reality only a handful of patients get taken into secondary care due to commissioning practices, misunderstanding of the nature and severity of OCD and extreme pressures caused by inadequate funding, insufficient staff and high demand.
This session aims to:
- Examine the problem of OCD and the reality of the lack of treatment resources.
- Suggest realistic ways in which we can address these issues with transformation of services.
Chair: Lynne Drummond, South West London and St George's NHS Trust
Jemma Reid, Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Sumeet Gupta, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, Harrogate, United Kingdom and Gagandeep Singh, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Birkenhead, United Kingdom
Ashley Fulwood, OCD-UK, Belper, United Kingdom
Lynne Drummond, South West London and St George's NHS Trust, United Kingdom
