OCD BOUNCE – Building community-based treatment capacity for children and young people across NSW
Dr Iain Perkes
Dr Iain Perkes
Dr Iain Perkes
Iain has a significant Australian and international reputation in child and adolescent mental health including pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry Editorial Board, the ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research Translation, the Sydney Partnership in Health, Education, and Enterprise (SPHERE), and NSW Health’s Systems Information and Analytics and Higher Education branches.
Dr Perkes’ clinical research portfolio includes OCD, behavioural neuroscience, neuroimaging, and child and adolescent mental health services. In 2002 he established and leads the Kids Research Mental Health initiative and the NSW-wide paediatric OCD Bounce clinical research translation service within the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network as part of a national collaboration.
One in 50 people in Australia live with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and for 80% of this group, onset emerges during childhood or adolescence. Children with OCD experience the highest rate of school absenteeism compared to other similar conditions nationwide, and in NSW children with OCD have the longest psychiatric hospital stays and readmission rates.
This results in a conservative estimate of $2 million in annual admission costs for the state.
Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) is a highly effective treatment plan which results in long-term remission in 70% of cases, and yet the average duration from symptom onset to treatment delivery is 17 years. Additionally, ERP is currently offered by only 6% of therapists.
About the project
OCD BOUNCE (Bringing Our Under-served Needed Care and Expertise) is a novel program designed to enhance clinical capacity and transform care for children and young people affected by OCD and related disorders.
Tailored training will be provided to clinicians in the South-Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) through face-to-face workshops and ongoing video-conference case-based supervision.
The training will be evaluated in terms of its effectiveness to enhance clinician competency, fidelity of implementation, and consumer experience of ERP delivery.
It aims to:
- support and train clinicians to better detect and assess OCD and deliver ERP within existing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, so more young people can receive treatment earlier in their illness.
- offer a community-based intensive alternative to in-patient hospital treatment, reducing admissions by preventing children and adolescents from developing more extreme or severe OCD.
It is predicted that OCD BOUNCE’s intensive community-based therapy will result in a 75% reduction in hospital bed days for people experiencing severe-to-extreme symptoms of OCD, resulting in an annual cost saving of $374,550 for SESLHD alone.
These savings could be reallocated to support community-based care for those experiencing severe-to-extreme symptoms of OCD, while also facilitating the national output of digital resources to provide care for mild-to-moderate cases.
The anticipated state-wide annual saving of $1.5 million could enable the expansion of OCD BOUNCE throughout NSW, and subsequently across Australia.
Outcomes
This project secured ongoing funding to enable continuation of research activities following the conclusion of this grant project.
Media and Publications
Paper: Falling through the cracks in science and clinical service – A call to action for people with OCD
Project Status
This project is complete after securing funding until 2025 through the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Funding Sources
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- Commonwealth grant funding awarded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care
- Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network
- University of New South Wales
- Griffith University
- South-Eastern Sydney Local Health District
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