With the surge of Hoarding shows on T.V. people ask me all the time if I work with hoarders and when I tell them that I do their next comment is usually something like “That’s disgusting. I would just throw everything in the garbage” or “I would just burn the house down”.
Well…. that’s not the right way to work with hoarders. In fact, that would cause more damage. It takes a lot for a hoarder (or a family member) to actually pick up the phone and call an organizer. If you just start throwing all of their things in the garbage you are in fact telling them that “their stuff is not important, it’s worthless” and you have lost them. You have lost their trust and respect. And once you have lost that, the project will be stalled if not halted.
Working with hoarders requires a lot of patience and special training. Having a Certificate of Study in Chronic Disorganization and a Certificate of Study in Basic Hoarding Issues with the CD Client in addition to classes in mental health issues has really helped me to understand how to work with hoarders.
For some of my really severe hoarding clients there are other people involved in the process. People such as mental health professionals, social workers, the health department, lawyers, Adult Protective Services….
Unfortunately, most of these people don’t really know anything about hoarding. I’ve had numerous social workers tell me that “they got other people to help their client throw out the garbage”. At which point my mouth dropped open and I wanted to say to them “are you kidding ?”
It just shows how little they know and understand about hoarding and how to work with hoarders.
For one hoarding client who had no running water the social worker said to me “I’ll give her some dry shampoo and she’ll be fine”. I was stunned and disgusted with the social worker. She obviously didn’t care about her client and did nothing to help her. Her insight into the actual work and time frame that would be needed to get her client to have a livable house was totally unrealistic.
Hoarding is a complex issue. One that cannot be taken lightly. One that cannot be fixed in an hour or day or week or month. It’s not like on T.V..
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