The Public Health Issue of Hoarding
Jul. 2nd, 2015 01:31 pmA growing public health problem in the United State is hoarding. Hoarding is a result of the mental condition known as compulsive hoarding disorder. Hoarders gather an excessive amount of possessions that they are unable to discard, because of seeing the value in the items. This can affect everyone around them from neighbors to friends to family members, resulting in them being alienated from their social groups. How widespread is this problem?
The hoarding condition was not recognized till recently as a mental condition until recently . One of the most iconic cases of hoarding was known as “The Collyer Incident” where two brothers hoarded the entirety of their four-story brownstone with in
New York with stuff. Even to this day the New York City Fire Department makes reference to hoarding situations as “Collyer Mansions” call. Roughly 2% to 5% of the population of the population suffers from the conditions of a compulsive hoarding disorder. What is the general demographic of the hoarding condition?
The demographics of the hoarding populace include primarily the elderly who are single. The first group that addresses these situations are individuals who are involved with Adult Protective Services. Unfortunately, many of the individuals who are elderly are on fixed incomes are unable to afford the cleanup projects. However, their cognizant on what they are doing, and a result is that they refuse to seek the help of professionals nor can the court systems find them mentally incompetent.
One of the biggest questions of this public health crisis is what causes people to hoard? Some psychologists treat hoarding as an aspect of addiction or compulsion, which is the neurological process is involved. An example of this behavior would be a paper hoarder who obsesses over books or newspapers. Others treat it as the result of traumatic event where people gather items to fill the void that was caused by the event. The items that that are involved with traumatic circumstances can be certain books or pictures that comfort the hoarder.
Hoarding cleanup is a potential solution to this public health crisis. However, without the proper the proper hoarding therapy taking place then there is a high chance that the person might return to their old ways. There are specialty cleaning companies out there that do provide a hoarding cleanup service to help the individual get back to a clean and healthy living environment. This can hopefully some of the problems that are brought on by this public health crisis.
The hoarding condition was not recognized till recently as a mental condition until recently . One of the most iconic cases of hoarding was known as “The Collyer Incident” where two brothers hoarded the entirety of their four-story brownstone with in
New York with stuff. Even to this day the New York City Fire Department makes reference to hoarding situations as “Collyer Mansions” call. Roughly 2% to 5% of the population of the population suffers from the conditions of a compulsive hoarding disorder. What is the general demographic of the hoarding condition?
The demographics of the hoarding populace include primarily the elderly who are single. The first group that addresses these situations are individuals who are involved with Adult Protective Services. Unfortunately, many of the individuals who are elderly are on fixed incomes are unable to afford the cleanup projects. However, their cognizant on what they are doing, and a result is that they refuse to seek the help of professionals nor can the court systems find them mentally incompetent.
One of the biggest questions of this public health crisis is what causes people to hoard? Some psychologists treat hoarding as an aspect of addiction or compulsion, which is the neurological process is involved. An example of this behavior would be a paper hoarder who obsesses over books or newspapers. Others treat it as the result of traumatic event where people gather items to fill the void that was caused by the event. The items that that are involved with traumatic circumstances can be certain books or pictures that comfort the hoarder.
Hoarding cleanup is a potential solution to this public health crisis. However, without the proper the proper hoarding therapy taking place then there is a high chance that the person might return to their old ways. There are specialty cleaning companies out there that do provide a hoarding cleanup service to help the individual get back to a clean and healthy living environment. This can hopefully some of the problems that are brought on by this public health crisis.