New Research Into Treatment Availability For People With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, UK

Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry
Also Included In: Mental Health
Article Date: 12 Jun 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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OCD-UK, the leading national charity for people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder with the support of a grant from Comic Relief has announced a year long research project to understand and evaluate if treatment guidelines have had a positive impact on providing treatment for people with OCD across the UK.

In 2005 the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) launched a set of guidelines for the identification, treatment and management of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In general, healthcare professionals in the NHS are expected to follow NICE's clinical guidelines for the treatment of the illness.

OCD-UK Chief-Executive Ashley Fulwood commented. "Since 2005 these guidelines have been freely available to Primary Care and Mental Health Trusts, yet despite this we are receiving complaints on a daily basis from individuals claiming that they still can not access the correct form of therapy".

"This research will provide us with the hard evidence about which Trusts are adhering to the treatment recommendations from NICE, and which have still yet to implement them some 4 years later. People with OCD deserve access to the correct form of treatment today, not tomorrow."

OCD-UK intends to measure services now, and use the data collated to ensure the government's current initiative to Improve Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) has a significant benefit to the OCD community as it is fully rolled out over the next 3 years.

Results of this research will be shared with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the Care Quality Commission (formerly Healthcare Commission).

For more information about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder people visit the OCD-UK website at http://www.ocduk.org

It is our belief that everyone affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder should receive the most appropriate and the highest quality standards of care, support and treatment.

Our objective is to make a positive and meaningful difference in the everyday lives of people affected by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, by providing accessible and effective support services and by campaigning for improved access and quality treatment and care for people with OCD. We believe it is vital that every person affected by OCD receives the highest quality of treatment and care that they are entitled to and deserve.

Source
OCD-UK