FOCUS Programme Overview
The Freedom from Obsessions and Compulsions Using Strategies (FOCUS) programme consists of 15 sessions of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy.
The program involves one session a week for 13 sessions, followed by session 14 one month later and session 15 two months after.
The last sessions are a form of booster where the child reviews skills and receives assistance with any new OCD symptoms.
The programme also aims to provide both parents and siblings skills to help the child fight the problem in a supportive environment.
We adopt a ‘team’ approach during the treatment programme. Your child, as ‘team captain’, will learn all about OCD and will receive instructions for fighting OCD from the therapist.
The therapist is called the ‘coach’ and trains with the team once weekly introducing techniques to beat OCD, which form an imaginary ‘tool kit’ of specific skills for coping with OCD symptoms.
Each week your child will have the opportunity to practise these skills with the therapist, and will also be given homework activities to enable her/him to practice what she/he has learnt during the sessions in the home environment.
The rest of the family and friends make up the remainder of the team.
Parents will be provided with weekly tips on how to help their child defeat OCD. Each week the therapist will discuss with parents the aims of each session, accompanied by some practical information and coaching tips on how to help your child boss back OCD.
The innovative family based approach of FOCUS has been shown to be particularly important given the high involvement of parents and siblings in accommodating the disorder, and the associated distress experienced by the family.
A randomised control trial of FOCUS published in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, showed 88% of children who participated in the programme were diagnosis free at the end of treatment, compared to absolutely no change in the wait list group.
FOCUS is endorsed by the Cochrane Review as one of the top three “best Evidence based Practice International Treatments for Child and Adult Obsessive Compulsive Disorders”.
In Australia the “FOCUS Treatment Protocol” at Pathways Health and Research Centre is currently the only proven effective CBT Treatment protocol for OCD in Children and Adults.
It is based on a family approach where everyone is empowered to overcome the difficulties and gain effective skills to fight the OCD symptomatology in the sufferer.
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