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Source: Close Up
We've all heard of obsessive compulsive disorder, but for one family, it has meant giving up their lives.
A mother and father looking after a son who they can't even touch said they were not getting the help they need.
The boy, who cannot be identified, goes through two bars of soap a day and needs to spend hours in the shower each day.
It started when he had his tonsils out at the age of four.
"He came home and started a ritual of washing hands," his mother told TV ONE's Close Up programme.
But it escalated in his teens.
"When he reached 13, the OCD just blew totally out of control."
From there the house became, in his mind, contaminated. It eventually got so bad that he tried to jump out a window.
His parents got him admitted to Starship Hospital where he stayed for a whole year.
But when he got out, he could not return home. He had to switch where he stays every week - another cost for the family to bear.
When he sees his parents, it's on the side of the road because they can't go inside his room.
"He's very careful that he doesn't come too close."
They feel the condition has become so bad because the health service has failed him.
He had been discharged twice from in-patient care and three times as an outpatient, despite pleading to keep him on.
"They never abandon him on the street, but the agency they put him with abandons him on the street because he's just too difficult."
They said the greatest toll was on their emotions, especially the first time they saw how he lived.
"There was a whole lot of obstacles [in his room] to make sure people didn't come in and I couldn't believe how he was suffering. I sat down on a chair and cried."
They have been told by their son's psychiatrist that only a specialist clinic can make a difference. There is one in Australia, but they cannot afford it.
But his parents are not giving up.
"I just so much want him to be a part of my family. It's a huge hole. He can be part of us again, part of our unit with the right help and that's what we've been fighting for, for so many years."
Close Up approached the Ministry of Health for comment, but they said they didn't think it was in the best interests of the patient to comment.
