IOCDF is delighted to announce a new partnership with PsyberGuide.
PsyberGuide (PsyberGuide.org) is a non-profit website reviewing smartphone applications and other digital mental health products. Its goal is to help people make responsible and informed decisions about the technologies they use for management of mental health. PsyberGuide is committed to ensuring that this information is available to all, and that it is free of preference, bias, or endorsement.
PsyberGuide & IOCDF established this partnership with the aim of providing reviews of apps targeted towards OCD. In the coming months, reviews of OCD and OCD-related apps will be added to both the IOCDF and PsyberGuide websites. We believe that by working together, we have the potential to address the growing need for unbiased, reliable reviews of digital supports for OCD and we are confident that we can achieve far more together than we could alone.
“As part of the IOCDF’s mission to improve the lives of all those affected by OCD or related disorders, it is important that we disseminate information about the digital resources that are available,” said Jeff Szymanski, PhD, executive director of the IOCDF. “IOCDF is pleased to partner with PsyberGuide so that our community can have instant access to unbiased, reliable mental health app reviews.”
PsyberGuide is funded by One Mind, a leading non-profit organization supporting collaborative brain research to provide patients who suffer from brain disease and injury better diagnostics and treatment. With over 325,000 emerging digital health technologies, and an estimated 15,000 of those designed for mental health, One Mind recognized the lack of advice or guidelines to help people navigate the expanding marketplace of mental health apps. Thus in 2013, One Mind established PsyberGuide to address this growing problem.
In 2017, One Mind welcomed Dr. Stephen Schueller as Executive Director. Dr. Schueller’s work focuses on expanding the accessibility and availability of mental health services through technology. PsyberGuide recently welcomed Dr. Sabine Wilhelm to its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Wilhelm, a leading expert in OCD, is the Chief of Psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a Professor at Harvard Medical School, Director of the OCD and Related Disorders Program at MGH, and Vice-Chair of the IOCDF’s Scientific and Clinical Advisory Board.
We believe that with Dr. Wilhelm’s appointment to the board, in addition to this new partnership with IOCDF, PsyberGuide is now well placed to provide critical information on apps and digital supports for OCD to pursue the goal of bettering the lives of people affected by the disorder.
Dr. Schueller said “I’m thrilled to see the partnership with IOCDF and its potential to further expand the use of technologies to address OCD. This has been an undeveloped area in digital mental health and we’re happy PsyberGuide has the opportunity to tackle this together with leaders in the area.”
The IOCDF looks forward to sharing these app recommendations with you soon!
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