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November 8, 2002
News Specialist Jill Atwood reporting
It's bizarre behavior that psychologists don't quite understand,
and that social workers can't control.
It's called hoarding -- a person's inability to throw anything
away.
Eventually
hoarders isolate themselves, and shut the world out, not realizing
they are endangering themselves and others who may live close
by.
Adult protective services first brought the problem to light
after the number of these so-called trail houses began to
grow, and no one seemed to know what to do about it.
One worker says she asked all around the city for help, but
no one had heard of it.
Even with the pictures to prove it, it's hard to fathom what
you're seeing is actually a home, a home someone lived in
for years.
"She quit taking the garbage out about 15 years ago,
and she quit letting the dog out about seven years ago."
The woman who lived here lead a seemingly normal life. She
was a school teacher and reported to work everyday, clean
and put together. But once home, she kept to herself, as many
hoarders do, shutting the world out.
"Intervention or people coming in might mean that there
is going to be a cleanout, and a cleanout is where all these
objects they have been collecting will disappear ... (this)
causes a lot of anguish, a lot of problems," says Scott
Wright, an associate professor with the Gerontology Center
at the University of Utah.
Wright and a handful of colleagues are baffled by hoarding
behavior, so much so they've started an in-depth study.
Researchers believe the illness falls under the umbrella of
obsessive-compulsive disorder, yet treatment for that illness
doesn't seem to help hoarders.
Donna Poulton with Adult Protective Services says on average
she investigates about two hoarding cases a month.
"She would go out to garbage cans and dumpsters in the
middle of the night and take it up to her house, and this
is a woman with substantial money in the bank," Poulton
says.
"A lot of the individuals who are hoarders eventually
have personal hygiene issues themselves," says Kim Guess
with the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"It's not uncommon to find bathrooms that do not work
and have not worked for years."
They say the behavior does seem to be hereditary, and it mostly
affects single older people, although it can begin much earlier
in life.
Poulton
says rehabilitation is difficult, if not impossible, for these
folks.
"As it stands right now, if we return a person to their
home or if we move them, they hoard again. Then they de-hoard
that house and they hoard again. I have one client that I've
de-hoarded four times," she says.
Unfortunately, she and others on this project, at least for
right now, are at a loss for how to help them.
Behavior
modification therapy for these folks may be the answer, but
it is very time-consuming, and very costly. And as of right
now there is nobody in the state of Utah certified to do it.
Experts estimate only about five percent of hoarding cases
are reported nationally.
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