There is a shortage of psychologists able to perform OCD therapy in New Zealand. Photo: 123RF
OCD sufferers and advocates say it is nearly impossible to get treatment for the disorder in the public sector unless there is "blood on the floor".
One mother said it took eight months and calling the police for her son to be seen, and another said she had to sell her possessions to pay for a private psychologist for her children.
Exposure and response prevention therapy or ERP is considered the 'gold standard' for treating obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD.
It involves slowly exposing someone to their triggers, under the supervision of a trained psychologist.
The mother, who waited eight months to obtain treatment for her son through the public system, said it was not until she called the police that her son was seen by a psychiatrist.
"You just do hear people say, there has to be blood on the floor to be seen."
The woman, who asked not to be named, said the psychiatrist prescribed medicine for her son, which, while helpful, was not the ERP therapy he needed.
And while waiting for the psychological treatment for which her son was referred at the start of last year, she had to deal with the realities of parenting a child with OCD.
College of Clinical psychologists executive advisor Dr Paul Skirrow explained what it would be like to have OCD.
"It might be, for instance, an intrusive thought that somebody's going to die in your family if you don't do something which might have like a magical number, it might be turn the light on and off 20 times."
But OCD can manifest itself in many ways. For 19-year-old Sophie Maude, she could not say, or hear, the word "love" without feeling very uncomfortable.
"You know the feeling when someone puts their nails to a blackboard and they scratch down and it's that ... awful feeling like you want to throw up. It's like that but intensified to the max."
Sophie's mum, Sarah Julou, said this made home life difficult.
"It meant that we couldn't use the word because it would result in Sophie punishing herself for it, or the OCD would make her punish herself for it, which included physically hurting herself."
Julou said she gave up on the public system years ago because of long wait times.
She sold her possessions to afford private care for Sophie and her other child, Malachai, who also has OCD.
"I'd used vouchers to buy a smart watch to go with my phone, and I ended up selling those together, to get the money."
But she said even private psychologists who could perform ERP therapy had closed their waitlists due to high demand.
Some friends of hers had opted for online treatment via the US to get around the long waiting lists.
Dr Skirrow said the shortage of psychologists able to perform OCD therapy was partly down to it being a niche area of study.
"If we trained, you know, 100 more psychologists, only a small proportion of them would have a specific interest in OCD."
Te Whatu Ora Mental Health clinical lead Murray Patton acknowledged there was a shortage of workers who could deliver specialist services like ERP.
He said improving the psychology workforce was one of the agency's priorities and it was increasing the number of internships in the field, as well as establishing four new training hubs.
He said 10 new post-graduate courses for upskilling mental health professionals included papers on treating people with OCD.
