• "The Undateables"
 
A new programme is to be broadcast at 9 pm from Tuesday 2/4/12, entitled “The Undateables”. Below is a link and description (from the Channel 4 website).

http://www.channel4.com/search/?q=undateables

The Undateables is a programme about people looking for love - but with a difference.

The series follows a range of people whose ability to form relationships is affected by an impairment or challenging condition - such as being deaf, or having Tourette's or Asperger's.

The programme charts their quest to find love in an image-obsessed world where people are too quick to make snap judgements or assumptions based on first impressions - and even to consider such people 'undateable'.

With the help of one of the biggest personal introductions agencies in the UK, and using pro-active searching methods to find perfect matches, the series looks to help find love for those who have until now found it difficult to date.

Looking for matches within both the non-disabled and disabled communities, the series sets out to revolutionise the dating scene and turn society's prejudice on its head.

The Undateables is an uplifting and moving series exploring how society's attitude towards anyone who digresses from what is considered to be the norm can have a profound impact on those people's lives.

• Cutting Edge

Channel 4 Television broadcast “Cutting Edge – Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder” documentary about a Surrey resident who has this problem on Wednesday 21 December 2011 (repeated on Monday 9 January 2012). Below is the programme description (taken from the 4oD website):

In a pretty English village in the Surrey stockbroker belt lives the infamous Mr Wallace, whose hoarding habits have spread across a million pounds-worth of property that used to belong to his parents.

His detached bungalow, four-bedroom semi-detached house and separate double garage are all stuffed from floor to ceiling with newspapers and other household items.

Cutting Edge is given unique access into his intriguing home, where no one else has ever ventured.

Mr Wallace is arguably the UK's most extreme hoarder and his house has become a death trap. It is so packed that he has to crawl over mountains of papers and magazines simply to move from room to room; it takes 40 minutes to get to his front door from the chair he eats and sleeps in.

The garden also acts as a dumping ground for tonnes of refuse so old that it is overgrown by foliage and trees. The council has tried to force Richard Wallace to clear his garden but he fought them to the Crown Court, representing himself and winning.

A year on, things are coming to a head as the picturesque village is competing to win Britain in Bloom and Richard's home is once again the source of contention.

But with the hoarding now affecting his ability to function, Richard is entrenched to the point where his health is suffering, his safety is increasingly at risk and he is living in a physical and mental prison.

This time, the village's sense of community is truly tested and Richard faces the most significant challenge yet to his isolating way of life.

Programme link: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/obsessive-compulsive-hoarder/4od

• ADHD Campaign:-
  A petition was set up on the 10 Downing Street website asking for better NHS ADHD services for adults. There were over 1,500 signatures which is excellent because it means that the Prime Minister and the Department of Health had to read and respond to the petition (AADD-UK submitted a supporting report). A very big thank you to everyone for signing.

• Dyspraxia was covered on the Channel 4 programme 'Embarrassing Bodies' at 9pm on Friday, 4th March. View the programme until end of March 2011 on 4oD or visit the link below
  
  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/embarrassing-bodies/4od#3167716

• 'Releasing Excellence' (DOC) - a guiding principle for recruitment and employment based on maximising potential. It was written with the police in mind but the principle can be applied in any organisation.