Week 6: Final Project Concept Designs
Hello, everyone!
I cannot believe we are already at the halfway mark of the project; time flies when you’re having fun!
This week I started creating initial drafts of my final project design, and so far I have made two detailed sketches. Both of the designs follow the idea of using different aspects of OCD—causes, treatments, or both—to convey the complexity behind the disorder and our understanding of it by writing out the acronym “OCD” and showing how each of the factors create the whole.
The first of the two designs utilizes both treatments and causes, with an emphasis on all of the treatments I researched, to create the shapes of the letters. I intend to include a TMS coil, a DBS electrode, and a few other things to highlight the variety of treatments needed due to the different factors that influence OCD. The second design is slightly different where I plan to have each letter represent a level of our understanding. One letter will represent current knowledge of the causes of OCD, another one current treatments, and the final one barriers to treatment. This design is more comprehensive than the first one, and thus more complicated, so I am still unsure about which one to pursue.
I also wish to clarify some information from my previous blog post. I mentioned that the psychotherapy costs I found in one of the sources, specifically the ERP costs, were significantly higher than what it is typically seen. My site mentor and I discussed possible reasons behind this, and I will briefly summarize what we found.
The source I cited for the information was from the organization NOCD, which helps provide ERP and other treatment services to OCD patients. I did not initially realize that the article was written in a biased manner, likely to promote their own services over other therapists, by presenting the information in a misleading way. They stated that ERP had extremely high costs, partly due to there being a limited number of ERP-trained therapists; however, this is only partially true. ERP sessions can have a high price, but it is determined by the treatment facility or individual provider, which can vary significantly for a variety of reasons, including whether or not they accept insurance and where they are geographically located. This was only briefly mentioned in the article, depicting their network as a cheaper alternative when there are several other ones as well. They also misrepresented typical health insurance policies not covering ERP, making it inaccessible to patients. These policies vary significantly depending on the company, but they often do provide some coverage for psychotherapies, although underinsurance for OCD patients is a crucial issue.
I will also be taking my spring break after this post, so I will not be posting next Wednesday 3/26.
I will see you all in two weeks!
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