Who's got OCD? Obsessive treatment of OCD on TV screens this week

People seem to be returning to the subject of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) rather a lot lately (boom-boom). And is it any wonder. Almost half of the UK adult population believe themselves to be suffering from mild to severe OCD, a recent study reveals.

The study, conducted by Benenden Health in partnership with OCD UK, was released to mark the start of OCD Awareness week on 14 November 2013. Problematic behaviours include obsessive checking of locks, frequent hand-washing, hoarding, frequent checking of appliances, excessive cleanliness, preoccupation with symmetry and intrusive repeating thoughts.

This week promises to be a bumper week on the OCD calendar with an almost obsessive treatment of the subject on our television screens - no less than three programmes dedicated to its exposition and exploration in as many days.

Tonight (28 October) we start with OCD Ward (9:00pm, ITV1), which focuses the treatment of OCD at the Springfield University Hospital in South London. OCD Ward will address the impact of  the condition on patients and their family relationships, as well as the difficulties involved in treating it.

Then, tomorrow night on Channel 4, stay tuned for Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners which starts at 8:00pm and, as the name suggests, focuses obsessive behaviour around cleanliness. As much as some of us may feel that a small dose of this particular malaise wouldn't go astray in our lives, this is a serious illness with painful consequences.

Bedlam, on Channel 4, constitutes an OCD triple-whammy. This new four-part series challenges misconceptions about mental illness through unprecedented access to the patients and staff of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM), the world's first and oldest psychiatric hospital, it promises to make absorbing, if somewhat heartbreaking viewing. The first episode starts this Thursday (31 October) at 9:00pm and will feature OCD and other anxiety-related conditions being treated at the Anxiety Disorders Residential Unit.

So if there's any week to discover the facts about OCD this is it - just go easy on the replays.

Written by Jacqui Hogan

It's standing room only in English mental health facilities

In this post-modern era (and I never have been entirely sure what that means) it's difficult to know, at least from the outside, what's going on with mental health services in the NHS. In recent weeks I've written about a friend of mine who has lately been confined to a secure unit in North London and is having a lovely time by all accounts, reporting that "it's just like being in a hotel". Then, on the other hand, we hear in the media this week that mental health services are in a state of crisis - what's one to believe?

Just to give you the heads up on this week's report in The Guardian, an investigation has revealed that over 1700 mental health beds in England have been closed since April 2011 (representing a 9% reduction). Care minister Norman Lamb has described the situation as "unacceptable" - provision must improve, he says (earnestly).

The investigation protocol involved BBC News and Community Care magazine sending out 'freedom of information' reports to 53 out of England's 58 mental health Trusts. A substantial 87% of those to whom the report was sent (and that's a very high proportion so they were obviously motivated) replied.

The findings reveal that 75% of bed closures were in acute adult and geriatric wards and psychiatric intensive care units. Average ward occupancy levels were running at 100% and total (as opposed to average) occupancy levels were over the 85% limit recommended by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, with some at over 100%. Which begs the question - where were all those patients being stashed?

Whichever way you look at it, this can't be good, particularly considering the demographic of ward closures. Adult, geriatric and psychiatric patients in intensive care - not exactly the thick end of the wedge, shall we say.

"We're certainly feeling it on the front line, it's very pressured and we spend a lot of our time struggling to find beds, sending people across the country which is really not what I want to do" said Dr Martin Baggaly, Medical Director of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. He said that he had recently directed 50 patients in need to beds outside the Trust, all to facilities outside of London and some as far away as Somerset.

Let's face it folks, if you or a member of your family were in need of an acute bed for a mental health admission, the last thing you'd want is to be removed from your geographical support network or worse still, be given no bed at all. What becomes of the non-admissions?

Not to worry though. Norman Lamb, further to his observations on the state of play with bed closures, has said "There is an institutional bias in the NHS against mental health and I am determined to end this." Fine words, but can he deliver?

You can hold him to account by attending the New Savoy Partnership conference at the end of next month where the success of the government's massively increased funding to mental health services over the last few years will be examined. Are we getting value for money, do you think? If not, where is the slack? Where is all that money going?

Written by Jacqui Hogan

Conference alert: Psychological Therapies in the NHS

In 2007, the government issued its first ever commitment to enable universal access for anyone with depression and anxiety to NHS-funded psychological therapies. The then Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced funding for a national programme, which has since been well underway.

So how has the government investment in the mental health of our nation fared? Have we seen improved access? To whom and for what conditions? What have been the measurable outcomes?

Such questions will set the agenda for the annual New Savoy Partnership Conference, entitled Psychological Therapies in the NHS: Re-thinking Psychological Therapies in the new NHS.to be held at the Mermaid Conference Centre in London on Thursday 28 and Friday 29 November.

British Psychological Society Fellow, Professor Michael Barkham, will present the results of the Second National Audit of Psychological Therapies with Professor Mike Crawford and Dr Lorna Farquharson in the conference's opening keynote. Other speakers will include Norman Lamb, the Health Minister and the NHS England's National Clinical Director for Mental Health, Dr Geraldine Strathdee.

The New Savoy Partnership is a group of organisations whose aim is to bring psychological therapies to the NHS and improve access to those who need them in a timely and appropriate manner. Its annual conference aims to break new ground in policy development and present the latest findings and ongoing developments in evidence-based mental health practice.

This year's presentation of top line results from the Second National Audit promises to provide an invaluable insight into the health of NHS service provision and shed further light on the positive trends seen in the First National Audit. An excerpt from the conference promotional programme reads:

"If this event has gained a reputation for anything, it is for giving delegates the opportunity to challenge and engage with ministers, policy makers and decision-makers so they know directly from the people on the front line what doesn't work."

Fighting words then. If you'd like to have your say or find out more about the event, you can book your place and/or download the programme here.

Written by Jacqui Hogan

Asda, Halloween and who's the mental patient?

Yesterday, Asda was criticised for launching a Halloween costume for online sale, labelled 'Mental patient fancy dress costume'. As you can just make out from the screen shot of the offending item, the model is covered in blood and wields a meat cleaver - charming.

Amidst all the hoo-ha surrounding the offence being done to mental health patients because of this, what I find interesting is that no-one has raised so much as an eyebrow at what seems to me even more disturbing - the alarming spectacle of violence referenced by this, at best tasteless, party costume. I repeat, 'covered in blood' and 'wields a meat cleaver' - can anyone hear that or have we become so numb to such grotesque ideas and images that nothing disturbs our serenity (or should I say denial).

I contend that the increasing incidence of images, items and concepts like these in our everyday lives is a reflection of something we should be far more concerned about - such visions ultimately make mental patients of us all by inuring us to images of the obscene and violent, normalising them and even turning them into a so-called laugh.

Here's an idea - why don't we market Al Shabab outfits and sell them for Halloween in the wake of the recent Kenyan shopping mall atrocity - you know, just for a bit of fun? Given that Halloween is now a popular date in children's diaries, the need to recognise what we're doing is all the more stark. Or perhaps we should wait until the meat cleaving and blood letting starts among our young adults (and we've already seen it on the streets of South London), then introduce education around it into the school curriculum?

On a similar theme, a recent article by James Delingpole on the shocking reality of the content of the new Grand Theft Auto V game, gives a horrifying insight into this brave new world of explicit and gratuitous images of human suffering and violence. Horrifying, that is, to those who are still able to be shocked by the depravity routinely touted as entertainment in these times. I urge you, for the sake of our common humanity, to take a look at James' article.

Written by Jacqui Hogan

Neurocognitive impairment or just bad memories?

Just recently, there have been a few occasions on which I've had cause to wonder whether I'm headed squarely for dementia - being absolutely certain I'd forgotten my keys and then being surprised to find I had remembered them after all (better than the other way round), and the increasingly common disappearance of a word or thought that had, two seconds previously, been top of mind. Know the feeling? I know I'm not the only one, because just last night I was talking to a friend who also confided she's concerned she's on the same slippery slope, citing similar faux pas.

New research from Cornell University doesn't totally allay our fears, but it does move us closer to identifying reliable methods for evaluating whether such lapses are on the 'healthy age-related memory loss' spectrum or the 'Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD)' spectrum. The results hold promise for detecting neurocognitive impairment early and implementing prophylactic strategies.

CJ Brainerd et al. in the paper 'Dual-retrieval models and neurocognitive impairment' showed that declines in reconstructive memory (that is, recalling a word or event by associating it with clues about its meaning, for example recalling that 'carrots' was presented in a word list by first remembering that the list was associated with food shopping) were associated with cognitive impairment of the type described by MCI and AD, but not with healthy ageing. The type of impairment associated with healthy ageing was recollective memory - that is, an increasing inability to recall a word or event precisely.

So, decline in reconstructive, as opposed to recollective, memory is the all-important distinction and, over a period of 1.5 to 6 years, declines in reconstructive memory were a reliable predictor of of future progression to neurocognitive impairment (either MCI or AD). Of great significance is the finding that loss of recollective memory is a better predictive marker of MCI or AD than the best available genetic markers of such diseases.

So, where was I? The bottom line is, that forgetting the odd word or thought (or keys) here and there is a perfectly normal part of ageing. 'Thingummyjigs' and 'What's-his-names' are just fine. And hopefully this research will lead to greater leverage of the predictive value of reconstructive memory and foster earlier and more effective treatment of neurocognitive morbidity.

Written by Jacqui Hogan

A crisis of character in the Western world

I have a friend who has recently been 'committed'. In the psychiatric sense. To a mental hospital. Perhaps rather arrogantly, I didn't imagine I would ever be in this position - how could anyone I would befriend ever be locked away for mental illness?

I discovered this just a few days ago. She called from hospital to let me know what had happened. She sounded fine - no, not just fine, but positively chipper. "It's just like being in a hotel" she confided, chirpily. When I asked her what had happened, she said it started with her flooding their block of flats by leaving a bath running, then progressed to the fire brigade attending, followed by the police. For reasons unexplained to me, she resisted the police, who apparently handcuffed her to try to restrain her. Rather than oblige, she continued resisting and wound up banged up at said 'hotel' up the road. It sounded like she was thoroughly enjoying herself, and the prospect of a six-month mandatory stay didn't seem to phase her a bit.

One part of her story which raised a red flag for me, was when she described how she had behaved in response to the flooding incident. She said that (rather than going downstairs and checking to see what damage had been done) she chose to hide in her kitchen. The fire brigade thereby ended up having to break down her door to get in.

This small cameo speaks volumes to me and gives a clue as to what might really be going on for my friend - is she really bipolar, as she tells me she's now been diagnosed (like most of the population now, it seems) or are we witnessing a crisis of character - the unwillingness to take responsibility for one's behaviour.

According to experts only a handful of clinical conditions can potentially render a person not fully responsible for their behaviour. For example, people with delusional psychosis can commit heinous acts because their brains are not functioning properly. In such cases, an individual can lack the capacity to judge right from wrong.

But my friend is not in this position. She has never been diagnosed with delusional psychosis or any other condition that exonerates her from responsibility for her actions. But what I do notice, looking back, is that she has actively denied taking responsibility at crucial points in her life.

For example, when she was diagnosed with a serious physical condition which was subsequently retracted by her doctor as her health improved, she asked if he would keep the revised diagnosis a secret, to which he (remarkably) agreed. This entitled her to the full slew of sickness benefits and relieved her of the burden of ever having to take responsibility for her work life again. (The flats I mentioned are council of course, so any responsibility for rectifying the considerable damage caused by the flooding falls to the council).

When I delicately raised this matter with her some years later, she had totally forgotten that particular game-changing conversation with her GP, and I do recall thinking at the time - she has genuinely purged her mind of that truth. I wondered, at the time, what happens to the minds of people who choose to live in a state of denial. Perhaps now I am witnessing the answer.

A recent article by Dr George Simon PhD entitled 'Mental disorders and accountability: is everyone a victim?' speaks to the increasing shift in Western culture towards a 'he couldn't help it - he has a mental disorder' attitude, when in fact he does have a choice about whether or not to engage in responsible social behaviour. He refers to this as a crisis of character in the people of our Western nations:

"Not only has the character crisis being witnessed by the industrialised world over the past several decades reached epidemic proportions, but we have become so desensitised to it (or are in such enormous denial about it) and have grown so accustomed to claims that various mental disorders are really to blame for willful misconduct, that the very notion of personal responsibility for behaviour is in jeopardy of becoming extinct."

I agree with him that 'character is has always been key to responsible social functioning' and we are now entering a brave new world where virtues of character are the exception rather than the norm.

As to my friend, in many ways, being committed may be her preferred next step along the pathway to total relinquishment of any responsibility for her life whatsoever - reversion to a perennial childhood. Perhaps, to her, being committed is not such a high price for total relief from the adult challenge of character formation.

Written by Jacqui Hogan

A good kind of crossing boundaries

Those of you who are therapists and/or patients of therapists will likely be aware that, in the normal course of things, it's not a great idea to cross boundaries - as in, slap someone without permission (violating a physical boundary) or engage in emotional blackmail (violating an emotional boundary). But this month, the Mental Health Foundation is launching a new paper, front cover pictured above, entitled Crossing Boundaries: Improving integrated care for people with mental health problems which, it has to be hoped, represents a good kind of crossing boundaries.

The report sets out the findings of an inquiry which ran between April 2012 and June 2013, whose aim was to identify good practice, generate discussion and draw up key messages on integrated healthcare for people with mental health problems.

One of the key findings of the report is that the quality of the leaders involved in delivering mental healthcare services is vital - it is particularly important they understand that an integrated approach is needed. To achieve effective patient outcomes requires the co-operation of many professional disciplines and focus on major social influences such as education, unemployment, housing and poverty. Support based simply on medical diagnosis of mental illness is insufficient in and of itself - medical support is obviously critical, but adverse social factors for example, may mitigate against any positive effect.

This 'crossing of boundaries', the report finds, needs to be underpinned by a number of structural and organisational improvements, among the most important being integrated IT systems within and across different care and social organisations, the ability to pool funds from different funding streams into a single budget and shared protocol and partnership agreements.

But most important of all, the report cites, is the involvement of 'staff who understand the holistic nature of health care and have no professional defensiveness about working closely with colleagues in other disciplines...'. Hmmm. One has to wonder - would a little psychotherapy be in order?

Written by Jacqui Hogan