Change4life - Diabetes - Complaints

alba37 · 4 January 2009 at 6:43PM

Has anyone seen the TV ad, website or newspaper ads?

It's leading the general public, once again, to believe Type 1 "diabetes" could be avoided, by a healthy diet and change of lifestyle. They also lead people to believe Type 1's have diabetes because they have had unhealthy diets and lifestyles.

About the ad:

A series of adverts will feature children saying they will die early of heart disease or diabetes because of their parents' actions.

Type 1's have enough to deal with without misleading the public by a massive ad campaign. If you feel strongly about this misleading ad, please consider complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority

Contact [EMAIL="CMOweb@dh.gsi.gov"]The Chief Medical Officer - Department of Health [/EMAIL]

We are having to listen again to how our lives are being shortened by a condition there is no way we could avoid, and this is terribly upsetting especially for the 20,000 Type 1 children in the UK.

An online petition has been created, Asking that: The TV adverts should be taken off the air until they have been accurately rectified & all parties involved educated on this subject.

Please support it, by signing HERE, you don't have to have an interest in diabetes, every signature could make a difference.

You can also show support by joining the facebook group, OUTRAGED at the change4life Campaign

Every voice counts.... please spread the word.

Miss_Cinnabon · 4 January 2009 at 6:57PM

yep i have complained aileen, didnt know you was on here:D

they have a flaming nerve, i have enough hassle with ds getting bullied at school without this, they should have said type 2:mad:

mafivism · 4 January 2009 at 8:59PM

Hi Ladies

Yep - my 12-year-old is not looking forward to going back to school tomorrow to be told he got diabetes because he must have eaten junk food, rather than his body mistakenly attacking itself.

I will certainly be complaining. It is tantamount to encouraging discrimination and bullying against our children. Makes you wonder why we bother paying our subscription to DUK.

alba37 · 4 January 2009 at 10:35PM

This ad, has been double page spreads in papers today and all over the telly. There is no doubt the ad attracts attention, and our kids will return to school tomorrow with more pupils and teachers thinking they know about diabetes. They will be looking at our kids thinking we caused them to have diabetes through an unhealthy diet and lifestyle....

Diabetes UK are supporting the campaign...

More than 12,400 grass roots organisations, charities including Cancer Research, DIABETES UK and the British Heart Foundation, Tesco, Asda, PepsiCo, Kelloggs, ITV, the Association of Convenience Stores and the Fitness Industry Association have signed up.

... you can write on their facebook wall HERE

Miss_Cinnabon · 5 January 2009 at 7:08AM

thanks aileen for that, doesnt surprise me at all that diabetes uk supported this ad, after all we have said to them about their silent assassain campaign, you would think they would have listened to us, just feels like we are banging our heads against a brick wall:mad:

to have it spread all over the telly and papers is bad, i am just sick of peoples attitudes towards diabetes, its time they were shown that the types are totally different and type 1 are not to blame for having it, it isnt caled auto-immune for nothing!

Miss_Cinnabon · 5 January 2009 at 7:31AM

just had my say on diabetes uk facebook page, i am getting sick of their attitudes now, they could have stopped them from using the word 'diabetes' and it should habe been phrased to 'may lead to type 2 diabetes'!!

soolin · 5 January 2009 at 9:13AM

I too know someone very upset by this and will book mark this thread in case anyone has any ideas about how to get the ad changed. Her thoughts when I spoke to her was that if the started a campaign on the TV saying (this is spurious BTW) 'Avoid cancer by not drinking alcohol' and implying that alcohol for instance was the sole cause of cancer people would be up in arms about it. There ar eno other real campaigns that target people in such a way to blame them for their own illnesses.

There is no more link with that silly statement than there is to an unhealthy diet and type 1 diabetes.

maytaurus · 5 January 2009 at 9:17AM

[FONT=&quot]As a mother who has been there........
(long story short)
[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]taking my son to the GP's repeatedly from the age of 18 months........telling them there was something wrong with him........hyperactive, not sleeping, not being able to sit still, sweating etc etc........
being asked what I thought it might be ?!........
Being told there was nothing wrong with him [/FONT][FONT=&quot]:mad:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Being told he was naughty at school........trying to tell the headmistress there was something wrong with him & repeatedly being told he was obviously just naughty........
or he wouldn't be perfectly behaved in the mornings........and then be naughty in the afernoon !!!
Of course this was because he had eaten at lunch time!!!
To seeing him with his bones sticking out of his body........vomitting etc[/FONT][FONT=&quot]........[/FONT][FONT=&quot] then in a coma[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I didn't get a diagnosis for him till he was 9 years old[/FONT] :mad:

No apologies from anyone
especially not the teachers at school who had 'labelled him'
after diagnosis continued to label him & treat him abominably, making him sit in the office to eat snacks & have a drink etc [FONT=&quot]........[/FONT]
even after a special visit from the hospital specialist nurse[FONT=&quot]........
who said her visit had made no differerence and that ignorance, was an increasingly common problem with schools[/FONT]

PLEASE .....tell me things have improved since then,as my son is now 22

If your hospital has a group for parents,please join,as I found them invaluable and the specialist nurse completed all the paperwork for DLA
I hope you find these links useful;

Education and Diabetes-Problems your Child Might Face
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/Advocacy/DiabetesUK_Advocacy_Schools.pdf
The care of pupils with diabetes in schools is hugely inconsistent throughout the country. Schools which provide full support for a child with diabetes are few and far between

How you can get the most from your healthcare, and how to
complain if you feel let down by it
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/Advocacy/DiabetesUK_Advocacy_Complaintswithmedical.pdf

Diabetes and Children in the UK
http://www.childrenwithdiabetesuk.org/

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF)
is working with schools across the UK to provide information and support to staff in both managing type 1 diabetes in schools and also in teaching pupils about diabetes. Many schools are getting involved in fundraising for JDRF to help us find a cure for type 1 diabetes
http://www.jdrf.org.uk/page.asp?section=0001000100070008

Children, Kids, Teens and Diabetes
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/kids-and-teens/

alba37 · 5 January 2009 at 11:20AM

soolin wrote: »

I too know someone very upset by this and will book mark this thread in case anyone has any ideas about how to get the ad changed. Her thoughts when I spoke to her was that if the started a campaign on the TV saying (this is spurious BTW) 'Avoid cancer by not drinking alcohol' and implying that alcohol for instance was the sole cause of cancer people would be up in arms about it. There ar eno other real campaigns that target people in such a way to blame them for their own illnesses.

There is no more link with that silly statement than there is to an unhealthy diet and type 1 diabetes.

Hopefully the more complaints they get the better.

We have now 5 ways to complain:

Online to the Advertising Standards Authority

Phoning Change4life directly - 0300 123 4567

Department of Health - Email [EMAIL="CMOweb@dh.gsi.gov.uk"]Chief Medical Officer[/EMAIL]

[EMAIL="supporterservice@diabetes.org.uk"]Email Diabetes UK[/EMAIL]

Your own MP

and you can have a rant on the Diabetes UK facebook wall

We are getting our ideas together at the UK Children with Diabetes email list. It's a great group for advice, information and support parents of children with T1. Anyone wishing to sign up you can do it here.

Every voice counts...

alba37 · 5 January 2009 at 11:33AM

maytaurus wrote: »

PLEASE .....tell me things have improved since then,as my son is now 22

Hi Maytaurus,

There are still terrible stories of diagnosis going around. There are still problems with schools too. I'm sure it happens less now, but it still happens a lot. There is a long way to go yet.

The only problem we didn't have was diagnosis, but care has been bad ever since, (almost 3 years now) and school's a constant battle.

The government feeding the public rubbish, is not going to help. They are attaching a sigma to our kids, who have enough on their plate as it is.

They are sending out the message, our kids have a lifelong condition, there is no cure, they need to inject up to 6 times a day just to survive, their life expectancy is reduced and all this is their parents fault!!!

Since when could a parent cause an autoimmune condition? :mad:

Broken_hearted · 5 January 2009 at 11:49AM

TBH I don't think the general public understand the difference and most info is aimed at type 2 lifestyle diabetes, the attitude is anyone saved is a bonus.
Like all disabilities those who don't have it don't have any understanding or connection with its consequences.

Change4life - Diabetes - Complaints

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free