UEA study finds housing officers need better training to help hoarders
There's currently no national guidance in place for managing or dealing with hoarding behaviours
Housing officers need better training or specialist support teams to deal with hoarders- according to new findings from the UEA.
There's currently no national guidance in place for managing or dealing with hoarding behaviours.
The study's suggested these workers currently face challenges ranging from fire risks to dealing with those suffering with complex mental health needs.
Dr Sarah Hanson is from our University and led this research.
She talked us through signs which suggest somebody might be a hoarder: "You would notice the tell-tale signs when people is having trouble discarding things.
"There will be lots of people who collect things and there will be those that collect things quite obsessively, you might have Norwich City fans who collect all sorts of memorabilia, but this takes it to another level and then it is worth looking around for other support".
Dr Hanson also told us that the issue needs to be taken more seriously: "To make light of it just feels such a cruel thing to do.
"So, a greater awareness and to be a bit more compassionate to people with it, would be incredibly helpful for me.
"Where I've met people who have hoarding behaviours they really struggle, they desperately want help but they just don't know where to start.
"People might be going to their GP or functioning very well at work, but this aspect of their life is very hidden. People become very isolated, because people don't come into their homes because they don't feel like they can have somebody in their homes.
"We don't know the prevalence in the community but probably anything between 2 and 6 per cent of the adult population have hoarding behaviours, so it's quite high".
She concluded by telling us that these Council workers shouldn't have to deal with this alone: "Housing officers are really professional and they have so much to deal with of anything that can come across their door to do with housing.
"But hoarding is quite a unique problem, so we have suggested that having people who are specially trained and have all sorts of solutions and ideas, because it's a complex problem, may be a better approach".