1. Seeking Help: A Comparison Between the NHS and a Mental Health Charity
Trilby Breckman
Fran Griffin
Rebecca Read
Paul Salkovskis

2. Triumph Over Phobia (TOP UK)
Who are we?
What do we do?
Why are we here?

3. Summary of studies of the prevalence of anxiety disorders in representative samples of the general population (percentages)
Paul Takes over after this slide
(Prevalence of anxiety disorders in children: 4%)
GAD: Generalised Anxiety Disorder
OCD: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
PTSD: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

4. Our focus in this research: for MOST people with OCD, its too little too late

5. Onset and Course; Two studies in CADaT
N=57 then Stobie and Salkovskis

6. OCD: Understanding is key.
We know that OCD is most likely an exaggeration of normal anxiety responses
Psychological treatment is the treatment of choice (CBT)
It also seems likely that it can be “prevented”, which is obviously the best option. Probably easily and cheaply too, in the long term.
We know that the human cost can be diminished in a range of ways, but the sooner the better
People can always be helped once
OCD has developed and detected.

7. COURSE OF ANXIETY RELATED PROBLEMS
“Critical incidents”
chronic challenging
experience
Self
identification
“Transition”
Diagnosis Treatment
Enhanced
treatment
Resilience
Vulnerability
Subclinical
symptoms
Untreated Disorder
Treated Disorder
Primary Prevention
Fran comes next…
Secondary Prevention
Tertiary Prevention

8. Our research: Who did we want to recruit and how?
Recently started with a TOP group
Those who have never sought help for their anxiety
People who have sought help from the NHS
Existing or ex-TOP members
How?
Questionnaire
TOP groups, conferences, University of Bath, Social media

9. Who we got.. 77 people with anxiety problems participated TOP Members
12 OCD 17 Anxiety
Non Members
17 OCD 31 Anxiety

10. The measures we used…. Short measure of depression (PHQ 9)
Short measure of anxiety (GAD7)
How impaired people are (WSAS)
A measure of avoidance (Fear questionnaire)
We also asked…
How participants view themselves
How satisfied they were with treatment
Attitudes towards group treatment

11. Descriptive data
TOP member Non-Member Age Depression Anxiety OCD Phobia No statistical differences

12. Attitudes
TOP Not TOP Views of self not diff Attitudes to group treatment p<0.005 Satisfaction with treatment p<0.001

13. Qualitative findings Why do Qualitative as well as the numbers?
Depth of understanding
A more direct voice to the people we are interested in and who want to tell their stories
Pulls all of this together
In present study:
People commented in writing on their experiences of treatment (the positives and negatives)
We are currently interviewing some recent TOP joiners, and people who have never sought help)

14. Experiences of treatment
TOP
NHS
Goal setting
Supportive atmosphere
People who understand
Receiving diagnosis
CBT
Medication
TOP
NHS
Time consuming
Support between sessions
Waiting list and limited appointments
Inappropriate diagnoses/treatment

15. What does a researcher make of this?
ToP helped with refocussing the questions asked
Helped me examine my assumptions
Helped me to become more focussed on opinions of sufferers and carers
Helped me to consider how best to manage knowledge transfer and how to focus this

16. What does TOP make of this?
Giving voices to members
Evidence to show that TOP provides valuable service
Need to reach out to those who’ve never sought help
Updating recruitment strategy

17. Where to next?