Are you a person of colour living with OCD or a related condition? We’d love to hear from you. Take our survey and help us to improve our services.
At OCD Action we have a vision of a time where OCD is well understood, and everybody can access the treatment they need, when they need it. However, we recognise that achieving this vision is impossible without addressing the significant barriers, prejudice, and discrimination that global ethnic majority groups frequently face within mental health settings in the UK. We are deeply concerned by the clear evidence that people of colour are underserved by OCD services, and we are determined to see this change.
OCD Action has recently established a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Panel to ensure we provide the best support possible for people who face intersectional disadvantage, in particular people of colour living with OCD. The panel consists of volunteers from Black and Asian backgrounds who have lived experience of OCD, as well as OCD Action staff members across all areas of the organisation. Through a collaborative process called co-production, the panel works together to improve the support and information that OCD Action offers, to ensure everyone receives the highest possible quality of support from us, and that every person affected by OCD is able to access the treatment they need.
Since the panel’s formation we have started to build a collective understanding of the barriers people of colour can face when accessing mental health services, why such barriers might exist, and what we can do to tackle them.
We are keen to expand our understanding by building up a more comprehensive picture of the barriers faced by people of colour and the personal and practical impact these barriers can create when navigating mental health services for OCD and related conditions. Together, we have created a short survey to gather the opinions and experiences of people of colour living with OCD and related conditions regarding their experiences with mental health services.
If you are a person of colour with lived experience of OCD or a related condition, or a relative of theirs, we would hugely appreciate you taking a few minutes to complete our survey. Your voice, lived experience and ideas are so important in ensuring change is realised and that in the future everyone gets the treatment for OCD they need, when they need it.
Take our survey and help us to improve our services for people of colour.
NOTE: We acknowledge that the terms ‘people of colour’/’POC’ and ‘Global Ethnic Majority Groups’ are far from perfect terms as they group together of people who have a wide variety of very different experiences. We know that this needs to be broken down so we can understand the experiences, challenges and barriers each group experiences and we aim to do this over the life course of this work. Our co-production panel thought carefully about language and could not identify an inclusive term that better reflected the diversity of our lived experiences. If you have views on our use of language, please do share this as part of our survey or email us at info@ocdaction.org.uk. Thank you.