Dear Friends,
It goes without saying, but 2020 was an incredibly challenging year for Louisianans. Despite the hardships that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic and hurricane season, the people of Louisiana came together to support each other with compassion and kindness.
The greater New Orleans region was an early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of the following months, all 64 parishes contended with high rates of coronavirus. Life was turned upside down and Louisianans worried about the health of their loved ones and themselves, grieved for those who passed, coped with job loss and economic instability, and adapted to changes in responsibilities and the ways they sought out support. We also had a record-breaking Hurricane season where five storms made landfall in Louisiana. Southwest Louisiana was particularly impacted as it was hit first by Hurricane Laura and then by Hurricane Delta. In response to these crises, we witnessed the the strength of our communities as they came together to support those in need. We saw the dedication of our healthcare workers, community leaders, and essential workers. We saw the generosity of friends and strangers alike who donated money, goods, and services to ensure neighbors had food and shelter. We saw the ingenuity of schools and businesses who created alternative strategies to serve their communities. We all adapted to the challenges we were facing.
We saw the OCD community reach out to support each other as well. As in-person events were not possible, we all relied to the internet to keep us connected, which resulted in meeting even more members of the community. Since the start of the pandemic, the IOCDF, the Peace of Mind Foundation, Rogers Behavioral Health, our fellow IOCDF affiliates, and many others created an abundance of free resources for sufferers and their families, as well as for mental health professionals. It was important to OCD Louisiana that we disseminate these resources to the local OCD community through our outreach efforts. We were also able to direct our community to a new virtual support group in Louisiana for individuals struggling with OCD and related disorders and their families.
Although we missed seeing each other at the Annual OCD Conference, the OCD Louisiana community attended IOCDF’s first virtual conference. We participated in OCD Awareness Week activities hosted by the IOCDF including the Draw Your Monster campaign and Virtual Voices for Mental Health advocacy event. In October, Team OCD Louisiana joined forces with the IOCDF and other affiliates to host a unified Virtual 1 Million Steps 4 OCD Walk. We raised nearly $1000 to support the IOCDF’s mission.
Louisiana has an overall lack of mental health practitioners and major shortage of those professionals with specialized training in the treatment of OCD and related disorders. Unfortunately, we also have providers in Louisiana who advertise themselves as OCD providers, but do not have the necessary training, which can be harmful to sufferers. In an effort to begin to address this issue, OCD Louisiana started a monthly virtual consultation group in August to provide an opportunity for healthcare professionals and trainees in our region to discuss diagnostics, case conceptualization, and implementation of evidence-based treatment for OCD and related disorders. Although many of our scheduled presentations for professionals were rescheduled, one of our board members presented on Body Dysmorphic Disorder to psychiatrists in training to increase awareness of the condition and encourage these providers to seek out further training in the area.
Lastly, OCD Louisiana hosted virtual meetings to recruit new voices into leadership positions in our organization. OCD Louisiana was founded by a group of mental health providers in the greater New Orleans region and we wanted our board members to better represent the community we serve. These meetings resulted in the addition of four new members to our board by the end of the year. We welcomed Caitlin Bussey of Lafayette, Chance McNeely of Baton Rouge, Ashley Rush of Lafayette, and Ashley Royerre Talley of Slidell to our board. The addition of our new members brought renewed energy and new ideas to the affiliate. We have taken a close look at some of our past efforts and prioritized goals for 2021.
During this coming year, we will continue to focus on internal organization, including holding more frequent board meetings and collaborating on projects via a shared virtual workspace. Another focus of our efforts will be on outreach to the community-at-large via social media campaigns, fundraising events, and distribution of our quarterly newsletter. We plan to partner with other regional health and mental health nonprofit organizations and connect with local faith leaders. We will continue to host our professional consultation group and give presentations to trainees and professionals in mental health and related fields. We would also like to reconnect with members of our OCD community, create a blog series, and further develop sections of our website dedicated to events, resources, announcements, and descriptions of OCD and related disorders. We plan to have more events for individuals and their families, ranging from virtual events like an OCD book club to in-person events (when it is safe to do so), like movie screenings and the 1 Million Steps 4 OCD Walk.
We cannot thank the IOCDF enough for all of the hard work they have done this year to serve the OCD community and support the local affiliates. We continue to be very grateful for their assistance and financial support and look forward to continuing our work with our parent organization. Most of all, we want to thank our fellow Louisianans for keeping our spirits high and supporting each other during 2020.
Warm regards,
Kristin E Fitch, PhD
President
OCD Louisiana