October 07, 2015
CEA Minutes 10/6
• Topic: Hoarding 101
• Speaker: Cindy Sweet from Senior Services
• A good resource for hoarding is the book Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy Frost and Gail Steketee
• Hoarding
o Individuals with hoarding disorder have a strong emotional attachment to their possessions
 The lifestyle is more about “acquiring than enjoyingâ€
 The collections vary (food, animals, clothes, etc.)
• Everything is a valuable to a person with hoarding disorder
 Things tend to replace relationships
• Hoarding because of isolation vs. isolation because of hoarding
o The key trigger age is about 50 years old
 There is usually some kind of trigger event (ex. Death of a spouse, etc.)
o Hoarding disorder can be found in the DSM-5 chapter on Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
o Hoarding can cause a lot of stress on the family
 Very stressful if one partner has hoarding disorder and the other does not
 The living environment can negatively impact children because they may not want or be allowed to have guests come to the house
 Some older adults may just be very overwhelmed with cleaning duties and therefore clutter builds up in their homes
o People who live next to neighbors with hoarding disorder are often afraid of fires
o Intensive behavioral therapy is a method that is typically used to help individuals with hoarding disorder
 Very time consuming and expensive
o Blitz: when a house undergoes extreme cleaning due to its presenting uninhabitable condition
 Very expensive, Senior Services only does about 4-5 per year
 The person who lives in the house has to agree to have the blitz done
 Adult Protective Services refer clients to Senior Services if they want a blitz done
• Senior Services will go visit with the individual and assess for services, as well as gain consent for a blitz
 Blitzes are most effective when the individual with the hoarding disorder is also receiving therapy to help with their disorder or else the house may go back to the same state
o Barriers
 It is difficult to find services to help individuals with hoarding disorder who are under age 60
 Fines from the Building Inspector are civil and not criminal
• Difficult to enforce
 Condemning houses still gives people the opportunity to be in them from 8am-4pm
 Individuals have the right to live however they choose, if they have the capacity to make that decision
 Individuals may live for years in an unsafe house due to their hoarding if they have no contact with the outside world
o Going forward
 Educate the public about hoarding disorder
• Hoarding is more emotional that criminal
 Try to have all agencies and police adopt the Clutter-Hoarding Scale to make reporting housing conditions more effective and streamlined
• More descriptive reports from police officers and communication with hospital staff when they bring an individual in
 Possibly investigate a way to get the court system involved to get the individuals help, if they want it
 Talk with the building inspectors to get their view on the situation
 There are 2 self-help groups for individuals with hoarding disorder
• The Mental Health Association offers a group
• WNY Independent Living Center offers a group
