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New Channel 4 series "Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners"


Guest sarah1984

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the link to the update, pauls response to the programme is coming up as a oops, i.e not working

I had to take it off, Paul had quoted lots of the ch4 emails, so we needed to seek confirmation that it was ok to publish those. Just been granted that permission by Alison from ch4, so we will add Paul's comments tomorrow, tonight Northern Star is my priority with a little advocacy help.

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tonight Northern Star is my priority with a little advocacy help.

...and very grateful she is :)

I am writing my letter to C4 this evening / tomorrow. I am also currently filling in Ofcom's complaint form. I want to untick the box for the following...

"Information you provide will be used by Ofcom to handle your complaint, provide you with information and to take appropriate action. Ofcom may disclose your contact details (i.e. name and address) and details of your specific complaint to the broadcaster for complaint-handling purposes. Please note that Ofcom may not be able to deal with your complaint if we cannot disclose these details to the broadcaster.

Please read the following carefully.

Please REMOVE the tick if you do not want us to pass your contact details to the broadcaster concerned. Please note that if we need to investigate the issue, we may send a summary of your complaint (without your name) to the broadcaster for their views."
...but If I untick, will my complaint still be looked at? I don't particularly want C4 to have my phone number (and won't be putting it in my letter) but I do want Ofcom to investigate.
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Hi there,

I thought about whether I should leave that boxed ticked or not... From memory I don't think it said that they'd have to have your number to look at the complaint. I think you should be fine to untick it if you want to.

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Guest faithless

Well, thank you very much Channel 4! It's distressing enough trying to jump through the hoops the new benefits system provides in order to keep a roof over my head, so thank you for adding spikes to those hoops by broadcasting your ignorance about OCD!

Having been switched over from Incapacity Benefit to the new Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), I'm now required to liaise with job centre staff whose main concern is to find people jobs, not assess their health - trying to explain my inability to work to a non-health professional was daunting enough, but it would have been far less stressful had my particular interviewer not been a fan of shoddily-made, unresearched television programmes...

When I mentioned I had OCD, my interviewer said "Oh, OCD... that's where you clean all the time isn't it? I saw that programme. Have you thought about getting a cleaning job?"

It was said in all innocence and I can forgive her for being ignorant about OCD, as most people are. What I can't forgive is Channel 4 - a media machine with power to influence people - dishing out misinformation that could potentially ruin people's lives. This was just one worker at a job centre with the power to stop people's much-needed benefits. It took a lot of unnecessary explaining before she understood my circumstances regarding OCD because, of course... it was a serious television programme so it must be true! Why would they broadcast it otherwise?

I wonder how many other people with OCD are now being forced to jump through the same spiked hoops because "Well... Channel 4 said people with OCD love cleaning so there should be loads of jobs available to you". Thankfully, my advisor had the common-sense and decency to research OCD herself before making any decision regarding my benefits, but how many other job centre staff - when faced with thousands of benefit applicants a week - would take the time to do the same, especially when faced with Channel 4's "proof"?

Channel 4, I hope you can understand the damage you have done by broadcasting Obsessive Compulsive Cleaners. This isn't some silly misconception that will turn up in a pub quiz one day, like lemmings wanting to leap of cliffs (they don't), bats being blind (they're not), or water being clear (it's actually blue). It is misinformation on a grand scale that can affect people's lives to the point of them being homeless and even suicidal. Everybody involved with the programme should be ashamed of themselves.

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Guest Emma82

I am so saddened by this I TOO used to think ocd was just about cleaning washing hands etc and that I was a nut job with these voices in my head and was scared to tell anyone it wasn't till last year when I found this site that I realised it is all OCD and Im not crazy so I presume loads of sufferes watched this and still think they are mad as its just promoting ocd as a cleaning complaint so sad going offline now for a while to try and reboost myself.

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Guest orange socks

Got a request to do a radio interview and another interview off the back of this programme.......so maybe all's not lost afterall. And no.....i won't be talking about cleaning my house cause its a ruddy tip :-)

a chance to tell how it really is methinks!

I didn't contact others offering to speak.....they found me.....so people do seem to be thinking about this programme

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I complained to Ofcom a couple of weeks ago. They said in their automated reply that they don't normally respond to individuals. Are they likely to give an official reply? Is it worth complaining again?

I wrote to the exec of channel 4 as you suggested so will let you know what reply I get.

Claire x

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Just thought I would post the reply I had from my MP's office.

Thank you for your email to Greg Clark. I am sorry for the delay in acknowledging receipt of your email but I just wanted to let you know that Greg will be writing to the Chief Executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards, to put your concerns to him, and Greg will be in touch again as soon as he receives a reply. In the meantime, I would be grateful if you could let me have a note of your home address for our records.

Many thanks

Joanna Garner

Office of the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP

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Thanks Jayne.

Ofcom have really disappointed me. Firstly, you are limited to just 1500 characters to make your complaint, so that really limited what I wanted to explain and why I felt the programme was inappropriate. Then I am not allowed to be given reasons they rejected the complaint unless I put in a FOI request, but by then they will have commented in their weekly report for all to see. I only know it was rejected because someone told me by mistake, she was not even meant to have told me it had been rejected.

I have now escalated and appealed the decision and suggested it is in breach of 2.2 of the ofcom broadcasting code.

ofcomstandardsteam@ofcom.org.uk

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i complained about their complaint email window - the type was so small and not many letters, i just put 'stuff this email me your email address and i will send you a proper complaint letter' :) they did reply the next morning and said they would tell their I.T dept about the complaints page!

i havent heard from them at all - i think they should have to answer to someone who complains to be honest -in all other firms/utilities/shops etc you have someone who reports back (apart from C4) about your complaint etc.. its daft!

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Hi Faithless I'm in the same position. I had a very understanding job centre interviewer who agreed that I wasn't fit to work and shouldn't be on that benefit but that all she could do would be to interview me over the phone every 6 months. I have now had all my money stopped and I receive nothing because the partner I live with works more than 24 hours a week. I'm now trying to apply for Disability Living Allowance which I actually think I should've been on for years.

I'm not sure many of the people have real ocd on this programme. Although maybe some of the people they go oto "help" ironically have it! Hayley has 3 kids, I don't know how she can bring up kids and spend all that time cleaning because surely her kids bring loads of germs and dirt into the house and some woman this week called Claire has 5 children, works part time driving a minibus and yet we're told that she cleans for something like 15 hours a day. That's impossible. I have no children because of my ocd and I have no pets because of my ocd, both would be impossible surely with ocd or is it just my ocd is really really bad. I don't have time to work as I'm too busy cleaning. I wonder if some of the people on this programme are just bored, but I'd hate to think that I'm doing what everyone who is "normal" thinks about me.

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A little radio piece I did this morning for BBC Radio Nottingham. For some reason, I struggled to get the initial word 'hello' out my mouth, and the word 'therapeutic' during the interview :shy: I am pleased to say, that unlike the BBC Humberside interview I did a couple of weeks ago, this presenter asked some much more sensible questions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p015d104


From 1:15:47 To 1:28:44

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Alison just told me they have commissioned a second series. To say I am disappointed is an understatement, For all those that have yet to, I urge you please, please, please file a complaint to Ofcom,

I feel it is in breach of broadcasting code 2.2. Factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience. It is our belief this programme misleads the audience that the illness is a ‘gift’ and not a life destroying illness that must be challenged. It misleads that people with OCD take pleasure from their ‘rituals’. I also believe it misleads with the main character describing herself ‘as being OCD’, yet does not state she has not got, or is likely to get a formal diagnosis if OCD, thus meaning this entire programme trivialises what OCD is. I would also suggest it misleads in adding to existing misconceptions that OCD is all about cleaning (only 26% with OCD have cleaning compulsions).

So it misleads in many ways.


Please, all file a complaint based on this weeks show (to keep the complaint with the date allowed).

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Guest legend

a lady from the show is /has been on bbc radio wales every week (today at 2pm) discussing cleaning tips . (sigh) however i did make bbc radio

wales aware of dr salkivikis views on the programme and the presenter is going to raise it today during the show !

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