Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Body Dysmorphic Disorder

We offer Tier 4-6 Specialist OCD/BDD Services at national and local level. We have two distinct  services: National OCD and BDD Service  and  Trustwide OCD and BDD Service. Both services offer assessment, treatment, and advice for adult patients (over 18 of age).

However, location, level of severity of OCD/BDD and previously trialled psychological and pharmacological treatments determine which service is more appropriate for each patient.

The NHS England-commissioned National Service is a highly specialised service which offers assessments and inpatient treatment for patients with severe or extreme, complex, and treatment resistant OCD or BDD.  The National Service mainly focusses on inpatient provision and access is limited to only the most severe and treatment resistant patients in the country. We also offer intensive home-based treatment; however, capacity for this element of the service is currently limited.

The National Service operates at the highest level of stepped care in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and  can only accept referrals from CMHTs and for patients who have an allocated care coordinator.

Due to the high volume of referrals, advice requests and professional queries received by the National Service, the information provided within the referral documentation is heavily relied upon at the point of triage and multidisciplinary discussion. At this stage, it is not routinely possible to independently review full historical clinical records or to verify detailed medication histories unless these are explicitly supplied by the referring team in the referral form [docx] 88KB Detailed information regarding past pharmacological treatment, including medication names, dosages, duration of treatment, clinical response and side effects, is required in order to determine whether a patient meets eligibility criteria for assessment and is specifically requested within a dedicated section of the National Service referral form.

This is a specialist and tertiary level service for people with OCD, BDD and other complex anxiety disorders living in the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.

We are a small (3.7 whole time equivalents) team of dedicated and compassionate clinicians including Cognitive Behavioural Therapists, Clinical Psychologist and Psychiatrists. We offer input at home, clinic or in community locations, as is clinically indicated.

To be considered for assessment, patients must be aged 18 or over, and be at level 4 or 5 severity according to NICE guidelines, usually having had a previous trial of CBT and medication for the disorder being referred for. F ollowing acceptance of the referral, we offer an assessment and recommendations are made which may include treatment with our service.

Treatments we offer are evidence based and include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and pharmacological recommendations. Treatment is delivered in an individual or group format, usually on a face to face basis, but with flexibility to work remotely as clinically required. We also offer consultations and advice to our colleagues across the Trust.

More information about our referral process can be found below.