OCD Action

Vicky
Member

Hi everyone,

I am posting for some advice from fellow sufferers who have attended The Centre for Anxiety Disorders and/or people who have used the OCD Action Advocacy resource before.

This was the reply which I received from Dr David Veale after emailing him:

“Dear Vicky

I am sorry to hear you are suffering from OCD and it is clearly severe.

Your CMHT do have access to our unit if they refer you to me for an assessment by a member of our team and the local PCT authorise the funding. Referral usually needs to come from a consultant or senior member of team like a psychologist treating you.

You may need the help of an advocate from OCD Action (see their website for telephone number) or PALS who can talk you through what you need to do and be persistent with your CMHT in seeking a second opinion. If still no luck I would enlist the help of your MP.

David Veale”

My questions are:

1) I have emailed Jude rather than phoning her as I do not like to speak to people on the telephone (part of my social phobia) how did you contact Jude? I am not expecting an instant reply from her would it be best if I got someone else to phone Jude as I do not know how often Jude would check her emails.

2) I am expecting my CMHT to say that they will not refer me, if so is this something Jude/an advocate could help me with?

3) Are there OCD Advocates based in each town, for example local MIND? Or do you deal with Jude via emails (telephone for most people I would guess)

4) For people who have attended The Centre for Anxiety Disorders did you have to fight your PCT for the funding? I know each PCT is different, I am just wondering. It seems you have to fight for everything these days.

Thanking you in advance for any replies.

Vicky

Tue Aug 24 2010 12:09:16 #
Joel
Key Master

Vicky
Just to let you know that Jude is away on leave until Monday, she and her team of volunteers can work with people via email, phone or face to face (in certain areas) . I'm sure she will get back to you when she returns.

At present Jude is the only dedicated OCD Advocate in the country and demand for the service is massive. We have now trained up our first group of advocacy volunteers and are working on raising funds to grow the network. - it is very much needed.

Thank you
Joel

Tue Aug 24 2010 14:17:36 #
Vicky
Member

Hi Joel,

Thank you for your reply.

I have received this reply from my local PCT:

Thank you for your enquiry to The Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS). I will follow up your enquiry with local Commissioning Manager for Mental Health Services.

We have an Individual Funding Request Panel which meets on a monthly basis. The purpose of this panel is to review requests for treatment that are not routinely funded on the NHS. The request has to be made by the patient’s medical practitioner ie. GP/Consultant and he/she must complete an application form. The medical practitioner should state the course of treatment required and give any supporting evidence as to the effectiveness of the treatment. The outcome of the review panel is then feedback to the medical practitioner to share with the patient.

I will contact you again once I have spoken to the Commissioning Manager as to a way forward.

However should you wish to discuss this matter further please do not hesitate to contact me. My details are as below"

All my hopes are now lost as I will never get a yes from my PCT, let alone the Consultant agreeing to refer me in the first place.

I will just have to contuine as I can for as long as I can.

Vicky

Tue Aug 24 2010 15:58:06 #
Truddles
Member

Hi Vicky,

Welcome to the forum.

I have read your posts, though I do find it a little difficult to comment as you haven’t stated what led you to contact David Veale. Have you been refused treatment by your local CMHT? Or have you had CBT that hasn’t worked? Is this why you say

I am expecting my CMHT to say that they will not refer me,

If you don’t want to say on the forum you can send me a PM.

But what I will say is never give up hope. It took me some time to get to the Centre for Anxiety Disorders and Trauma, but I got the referral in the end. Mine wasn’t so much a funding issue (though that was part of the problem) so much as having to fight my way through the tiers of bureaucracy and Consultants not writing the referral (they kept forgetting ).

I found that writing down everything that I could about my OCD helped to clarify the urgency of the situation. I didn’t just write down what my obsessions and compulsions were but the extent to which they impacted on my daily life.

Unfortunately initially we don’t just have to fight our OCD but we have to fight the system. But we can win on both counts.

I know that you’re anxious to access treatment but please don’t let it cause even more anxiety than the OCD already is or it will exacerbate the OCD.

Best wishes
Trudy

Tue Aug 24 2010 20:01:32 #
Advocate 1
Moderator

Hi Vicky- just to let you know - back from leave today and have responded to your e mails directly.

Kind regards
Jude

Thu Aug 26 2010 12:45:22 #