Chris Danes: our audio diarist on Bipolar disorder

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:41:37 +0000

Chris Danes, his wife and carer Ruth with Peter White at the Mind Mental Health Media Awards

In this guest blog, Chris Danes reflects on his experience of keeping an audio diary for us over the past year.

Radio sets up a relationship between the broadcaster and the speaker- look at how many of lives have been enriched by say, John Humphrys or come to think of it, our favourite comedians. On TV, we feel close to Matt on X-Factor because we are voting for him. I never thought about this until I started doing the Audio Diaries.

The experiences of has been a weird one. Apart from the odd local radio interview about mental health I was a broadcasting virgin, writing bits and pieces, the struggling artist in his lonely garret at last getting his book published. Many a time I had felt like Rudolfo at the beginning of La Bohème burning his manuscripts in the fire to keep warm. I wonder if he had been living on incapacity benefit it would have made much difference. Those of us who have to might suspect not much.

When I am depressed I often have to theorise about killing myself to stop myself from doing it. It can be a bit hard when you're trying to make the brain work overtime when it is precisely the brain which is messed up. But what I do is to think of a list of reasons not to do it. So upsetting my wife and the kids comes first. And somebody has to find the body. And it might hurt. And so forth.

Then what you do is to list the positive things about yourself. You may think you're a bad person but you're not as bad as Hitler or Stalin. You are tormented by the thought that your friends secretly despise you but look and so-and so who is good and kind.

And then you have achieved things. You got your qualifications. You have helped people. You got an email out of the blue from a listener who said something you had spoken about had helped her.

Now, I had an upbringing in which my failures and odd behaviour were diagnosed as sin, and any hint of self-congratulation on reaching an achievement was considered as Pride. I know some wonderful people who have a real goodness from the same background as me too. But you can see how that kind of language can make a depressive very much worse. So sometimes I think it is extra hard for me to do the achievements bit. But the relationship with that listener and others who wrote the feedback to You and Yours seems to have helped both of us. It's something else to hang on to.

So doing the Audio Diaries had an unexpectedly therapeutic effect on me. How long it will last as the memory recedes I don't know. It enabled me to achieve something rather special and it's given me a big thing to cling on to when I feel like poo again. I'm learning to value myself despite my upbringing. And it was more than cool to be in a team with Peter White and Joe Kent, and to find out again that healing is found in the mysterious world of human relationships.

It has been a good journey.

Consumer Rights Over 40 years

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:19:43 +0000

In this guest blog Louise Hanson, Head of Campaigns at Which?, reflects on the how the consumer experience has changed over the past 40 years.

There's been a sea change in consumer rights over the past 40 years. In 1970, consumers were yet to receive the protection of the Office of Fair Trading and it would be another two years before the Geoffrey Howe was appointed Britain's first Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs. In 1970, it was still legal for suppliers to demand payments for something they knew hadn't been requested and for people to drive a car without wearing a seatbelt.

Although times have changed and people's needs are different, consumers still require as much protection, if not more, than before. In 1976 there was a 50-50 chance a colour television would break down, now people are concerned about online shopping rights and international scams. We've tested over 25,000 products in the last 10 years and our testing labs show that although things like TVs breakdown less than they once did, safety issues such as product recalls and car faults still happen and we need to remain vigilant.

Between the 1970s and late 1980s, it became obvious that people needed more consumer protection and one new consumer law a year was passed by Parliament. And the milestones didn't stop there - over the past 20 years we've seen the formation of the Food Standards Agency in 2000, and the establishment of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The development of FOS has been particularly important as it's been a one stop shop for consumers who can't get their complaints with financial services sorted out. But incredibly, we're still seeing the financial industry ignoring consumer's demands and their record of dealing with consumer complaints remains pitifully poor. However, the fact that consumers are being more proactive in fighting for their rights is a great leap forward and we'd always encourage them to do more.

Over the years, we've seen a huge increase in the willingness of consumers to take action to help themselves - particularly in financial services with endowment and bank charges complaints and the still ongoing complaints about PPI. We offer consumers template letters on our website and hundreds of thousands of people have used them to get redress.

In the past 10 years the Internet has also had a massive impact on improving the 'consumer experience'. There has been a surge in the number of websites that encourage people to share their thoughts on everything from hotels to local traders and many thousands of people make recommendations each day.

We still have a long way to go. While many of the problems facing consumers remain constant from one decade to the next, the emergence of new products and markets means that we're continually being handed new challenges.
A Which? survey in 2009 found that up to four million people have placed orders with an online retailer that went bust before their goods were delivered, and at least 17 per cent of those didn't get their money back.

And more work needs to be done. As the Government announces significant changes to the consumer landscape as part of its spending review, we believe that it's vital that front line advice and enforcement services are maintained.

You and Yours has been at the centre of tackling consumer detriment over the past 40 years and they've done a fantastic job, highlighting issues that really matter to the public. We wish them every success for the next 40 years.

It will be fascinating to see where we are in the next few decades. There are many battles still to be fought, but if we've learnt anything from the past, it's that we're going to have to remain nimble when it comes to consumer protection and adapt to the emerging needs and markets that are just over the horizon.

Louise Hanson
Head of Campaigns at Which?

BBC | Autumn Watch

Chris Danes: our audio diarist on Bipolar disorder

Consumer Rights Over 40 years