Delivery of OCD-specific care in Aotearoa and Australia: From Aspiration to Reality

This event is to mark OCD Awareness Week 2026. The focus will be current efforts to characterise and bridge the treatment gap for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in Aotearoa and Australia.

We invite anyone with an interest in OCD – individuals, families, health professionals, researchers, and politicians – to attend this free webinar.

OCD is a common mental health condition and can become debilitating. International research has developed highly effective interventions. In particular, Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) therapy, developed 60 years ago and subsequently fine-tuned, is the gold standard. As yet, this remarkable achievement has not translated into a continuum of evidence-based care and support being available to people who experience OCD and their families.

What the webinar will cover

There will be three presentations including Q+A, followed by a general discussion.

Pathways to referral for OCD treatment in New Zealand: University of Canterbury psychology student Ben Tattersfield is interested in the pathways by which people reach treatment for OCD in the New Zealand public health system. The Anxiety Disorders Service in Christchurch is a specialist outpatient service that provides assessment and treatment for people with anxiety disorders and OCD. Ben’s research involves interviewing ten adults referred to this service about their help-seeking journeys for OCD.

Update on introduction of the Bergen 4-Day Treatment to NZ: The Bergen 4-Day Treatment (B4DT), an innovative ERP-based intervention model developed in Norway, has shown strong clinical outcomes, achieving 90% clinical response and 70% remission with results still holding at a four-year follow-up in international trials. The approach has high completion rates and reduced barriers compared to traditional weekly therapy. Open Close Doors, a charity improving access to effective OCD treatment in New Zealand, is implementing B4DT in Aotearoa in partnership with the international Bergen team. This presentation will provide a progress report on B4DT implementation including pilot trials, clinician training and service partnerships.

Implementation of a staged-care model for OCD in Australia: Over two decades, Professor Lara Farrell and colleagues have developed and trialed the OCD Busters suite of interventions; they have sought to increase access to evidence-based ERP therapy for children and families and to improve patient outcomes in Australia. Recently they proposed a model of staged care for paediatric OCD whereby ERP therapy would be tailored to meet the needs of young people based on symptom severity and on complexity (e.g. co-morbidity). Partnership Project funding from Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council is now enabling the team to support delivery of evidence-based assessment and treatment for OCD by public health services in New South Wales and Queensland.

Your presenters

Ben Tattersfield: Currently studying towards a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology at the University of Canterbury, Ben aspires to become a clinical psychologist. His research supervisors are Professor Janet Carter, School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing, University of Canterbury and Associate Professor Jennifer Jordan, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago.

Professor Lara Farrell: Based in the School of Applied Psychology, Griffiths University, Professor Farrell leads the Griffiths University OCD and Phobias Clinic. She has published extensively in the field of OCD treatment and contributed to the work of the International Accreditation Taskforce, Canadian Institute for Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in the development of international training standards in CBT-ERP for children and young people with OCD.

Dr Marthinus Bekker and Emma Chapman, Clinical Co-Leads for Open Closed Doors: Dr Bekker is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Auckland, where he is the Director of the Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health programme. Emma Chapman is a Child & Family Psychologist and is a Senior clinician at Child & Family Psychology Service in Christchurch. Emma has worked across community, education not-for-profit, public health and private practice settings. Alongside intensive ERP work with young people experiencing OCD, she facilitates the Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) programme for families.