Hoarding disorder may be more common than you think

Craig Bakay | Mar 21, 2018

“Anybody here watch the TV series The Hoarders? — It’s not like that,” said HomeBaseHousing prevention diversion case manager Cassy Gogo said at a Seniors and Law enforcement Together (S.A.L.T.) lunch gathering at the Verona Free Methodist Church last week.

But there is a diagnosable condition that affects perhaps as high as two to three percent of the population.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, hoarding disorder is:

• Persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions, regardless of their actual value

• The accumulation of items clutter the living areas, causing them to be unusable

• The hoarding causes significant distress to the person and their ability to function normally.

“It’s a fear to part with things,” she said.

She said hoarding is a compulsive disorder, which can often result from trying to hold on to parents’ belongings or those of other family members.

“It’s different from collecting, or people who are just messy and don’t like to clean,” she said.

She said one key indicator that there could be a problem is if a bed is littered with stuff such that it no longer functions as a bed.

There are several real dangers associated with the disorder, she said including the risk of disease.

“In some cases of excessive accumulation, there is the danger of a pile collapsing, which can be a real problem if you live alone and it collapses on you,” she said. “There’s also a fire risk, and/or the risk of firefighters not being able to reach you in time if they have to clear a path through stuff.”

Social isolation can also be a problem as can the affect hoarding can have on neighbours.

“Usually you find out from complaints, especially if it spills out into the yard,” she said.

Gogo said that in the U.S., estimates are that two to three percent of the population suffers from some form of the affliction. In Kingston and the Frontenacs, there aren’t really any hard statistics and Gogo admits that the U.S. figures are likely higher than our area.

“But, I know of about 50 cases from talking to other case workers and for every one we know about, there’s probably a dozen we don’t know about.”

Now here comes the rub.

While they’re willing to help, the City only budgets $5,000 per year for their program.

“It costs $528 to fill a truck and haul it away,” she said. “It takes usually about four truck loads.

“So, we can help only about two or three people per year.”

Still, they do help some but Gogo is adamant that they only help willing participants.

“We use the three-box rule,” she said. “There are boxes for keep, give away and throw out.

“But, we make sure the person sees absolutely everything that goes out to ensure things like important papers (taxes, etc) and family keepsakes (photos, etc) are kept.”

She said family and friends don’t have to address situations on their own and encouraged people to reach out to various agencies. Sometimes fire departments can help.

In order to get agency help, a person doesn’t have to be on disability benefits but does have to have a diagnosed disability, she said.

The hoarding presentation will be held again on March 23 in the Storrington Centre from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. including a hot lunch (free).

The next S.A.L.T. topic will be emergency preparedness at the Golden Links Hall in Harrowsmith May 11 and May 25.