OCD Action services over the festive season
A message from Leigh, OCD Action's CEO
Hello everyone,
I had the privilege of joining OCD Action back in September as CEO, and even though it’s only been a short 3 months, I have been overwhelmed by the amount of life changing work I have seen.
I’m delighted to have joined such a vitally important organisation at such an exciting time. Our services are developing, our dedicated staff are more committed and passionate than ever, and our wonderful volunteer team is growing and making a huge difference to our work every single day.
A particular highlight from my first 3 months was our recent volunteer and fundraiser thank you event, where I was able to meet so many of you in person and say thank you for your vital contributions to our work. From completing admin tasks in the office, to running through jungles in Peru, our volunteers are an inspirational team, each of whom really does go above and beyond, ensuring together we can reach and support even more people – so thank you.
Having worked in local government at the start of my career and then over the last 8 years for the mental health charities Rethink Mental illness and Sane, I have witnessed positive and negative changes to our understanding of mental ill health, the services on offer for those affected and the support families receive when they are facing challenges. The positives outweigh the negatives, and that is largely down to organisations like OCD Action and the community of people who take the time to share their experiences, campaign and really highlight what an impact mental ill health can have. We have a long way to go, but I’m confident that organisations like ours can lead the way to influence and create change.
I am looking forward to 2020 and to working with the whole team as we focus on developing our services and fighting to create positive change for our community.
I hope you all have a peaceful holiday period, but we appreciate that Christmas can be a challenging time for many of you, and OCD certainly doesn’t take a break for the holidays, so to that end, some of our services will continue to run over the festive period, but some will be slightly less available than usual (you can see our opening hours below).
Leigh, CEO of OCD Action
OCD Youth services over the festive period
Forums
Our online Forums run 24/7 365 days of the year, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our moderators. The Forums are a great place to receive peer support from other people in similar situations. The moderators will be taking care of the forums over the festive season so they will continue to run as usual.
Access the Youth Forums
Helpline
Our Youth e-Helpline email service is open all year round thanks to our hard-working youth volunteers. If you’re a young person with OCD, or if you are concerned you may have OCD, please email the team for support and information.
Email: youthhelpline@ocdaction.org.uk
If you are over 18, you’re welcome to call or email the main OCD Action Helpline (please leave a message if you call and someone will call back).
Email: support@ocdaction.org.uk
Call: 0845 390 6232.
Please note that we are not a crisis service, so it is unlikely that we will be able to respond straight away and it may be a few days before you receive a call back.
For 24 hour assistance, please call Samaritans on 116 123, present at your local A&E, or use the Young Minds Crisis messenger service.
We hope you have a peaceful Christmas and all the very best for 2020.