Are you a young person (aged 16-21) living with OCD, or a parent/guardian of a young person who has OCD? Have you ever wanted to find out more about the role the brain plays in the development of OCD?
At OCD Action, we are incredibly excited to be partnering with the Department of Imaging Neuroscience at University College London (UCL) and the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) on OCD and the Brain, a co-designed project with three main aims:
- To better understand how young people with OCD and parents/guardians of young people with OCD view the brain’s role in OCD
- To better align UCL’s research to the needs of those affected by OCD through building stronger ties with the OCD community
- To co-produce effective toolkits for young people with OCD and parents of young people with OCD so those affected can better understand the neural mechanisms of OCD.
This project offers a unique opportunity for members of the OCD community to increase researchers’ understanding about what is needed in OCD research, and a chance to shape future research approaches. Through the project, we will co-create accessible toolkits to share knowledge about our current understanding about the brain’s role in the development and emergence of OCD. All stages of the project will involve working in collaboration with people with lived experience.
You can find out more about the project here.
ocd and the brain: Phase One
For the first phase of the project, we have recruited young people with OCD and parents/guardians of young people with OCD to join a series of three creative workshops to contribute to the latest research on OCD.
In the workshops, participants are joining other members of the OCD Community to use creative methods to share and explore your experiences of what it’s like to live with the condition.
The aim of phase one is to help researchers from UCL to better understand how young people living with OCD and parent/guardians of young people living with OCD view the brain’s role in OCD. During the next phase of the project (phase two), these insights will be embedded into toolkits, co-developed with members of the OCD community.
The workshops are run by UCL and facilitated by an independent creative facilitator. As a project partner, a staff member from OCD Action has fed into the design of the workshops, and is present for most workshops to provide support and/or resources.