Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one of the most treatable psychiatric disorders. Yet for millions of people, the greatest challenge is no longer discovering that effective treatment exists — it is actually being able to receive it.
Many individuals spend years searching for answers before they are correctly diagnosed. Others finally receive an OCD diagnosis only to discover that there are no qualified clinicians nearby, their insurance is not accepted, waitlists stretch for months, or specialized treatment is financially out of reach.
FORCE believes that evidence-based OCD treatment should not be a privilege. It should be accessible to everyone who needs it, without sacrificing quality, expertise, or scientific rigor.
Why Access to Care Matters
For decades, research has demonstrated that specialized treatments such as Exposure and Response Prevention can dramatically reduce OCD symptoms and help people reclaim their lives.
Yet many people never receive those treatments. Instead, they may spend years in general therapy that was never designed to treat OCD, see multiple clinicians before finding someone with OCD expertise, travel hours for appointments, or simply be unable to afford specialty care.
The consequences extend far beyond symptoms. Delayed access to effective treatment can affect education, careers, relationships, family life, finances, physical health, and overall quality of life.
Every year that someone spends without effective treatment is a year that cannot be given back.
The Care Gap
Effective treatment exists. Access does not.
Across many communities, there are too few clinicians with specialized OCD training. Insurance networks often exclude experienced providers. Geographic barriers leave entire regions without qualified care. Financial limitations prevent many families from accessing treatment even after finally finding an expert.
These barriers are not failures of individual patients. They are failures of systems.
Closing the care gap means doing more than helping individual patients. It means strengthening the systems that determine whether people can find, afford, and receive effective OCD treatment in the first place.
Our Philosophy of Care
FORCE believes OCD care should be evidence-based, accessible, specialized, compassionate, and individualized.
Building Better Access
Improving OCD care requires more than paying for therapy sessions. It requires strengthening the systems that connect people with evidence-based care — from clinician training and referral pathways to insurance, education, partnerships, and community support.
Our goal is not simply to help individual people. It is to strengthen the OCD care ecosystem within the broader OCD ecosystem.
How FORCE Creates Impact
Treatment Access Program
FORCE is developing a Treatment Access Program designed to help individuals who would otherwise be unable to receive specialized OCD treatment.
Our initial model is built around a structured course of evidence-based OCD treatment that includes diagnostic assessment, up to 24 ERP treatment sessions, and approximately twelve weeks of biweekly structured care.
- Diagnostic assessment
- Up to 24 ERP sessions
- Financial need-based support
- Qualified clinician participation
- Referral pathway development
- Scalable community model
Therapist Network
FORCE is building relationships with clinicians who demonstrate expertise in evidence-based OCD treatment. Participating therapists will undergo a vetting process focused on OCD competency, ERP experience, professional standards, and commitment to evidence-based care.
Professional Education
Improving access also means increasing the number of clinicians who recognize and competently treat OCD. FORCE supports education, workshops, trainings, and continuing education opportunities for healthcare professionals.
Community Support
FORCE seeks to connect individuals and families with support groups, educational resources, peer communities, and organizations that complement clinical care. Community support cannot replace evidence-based treatment, but it can reduce isolation and strengthen recovery.
Building Better Systems
Many barriers to OCD care extend beyond the therapy office. FORCE is committed to improving referral pathways, increasing awareness across healthcare systems, reducing barriers created by insurance and geography, and strengthening partnerships among providers.
Lived Experience in Care
FORCE believes that people living with OCD are experts in navigating the barriers the healthcare system often overlooks.
Their experiences help identify where people become lost in the system, what meaningful recovery looks like, which barriers matter most, and how services can better reflect the realities of living with OCD.
By integrating lived experience into program design, evaluation, and continuous improvement, FORCE aims to build services that are not only evidence-based, but genuinely responsive to the needs of the people they serve.
Looking Ahead
The future of OCD care is not simply developing better treatments. It is making sure those treatments reach everyone who needs them.
That future will require continued scientific discovery, more trained clinicians, stronger referral networks, expanded insurance coverage, better public understanding, earlier diagnosis, meaningful partnerships, and healthcare systems that recognize OCD as the serious and highly treatable disorder that it is.
Effective OCD care should no longer be the exception. It should be the expectation.
Help make effective OCD care reachable.
Your support helps FORCE expand treatment access, strengthen clinician networks, and build systems that connect more people with evidence-based OCD care.
Support Care Access