Hoarding Disorders UK launch support group in West Berkshire.

Hoarding Disorders UK CIC (a community interest company) was launched in Newbury on 22nd May by Jo Cooke and Amanda Peet to combat the increasing problem of hoarding.  

Hoarding Disorders UK holds free support group meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month from 7pm to 9pm at Broadway House, The Broadway, Newbury. Anyone suffering from hoarding disorders or their families is welcome to attend. The venue for the support group has been provided by Greenham Common Trust.

With 2.5% of the population estimated to suffer with the condition, which has recently been recognised as a mental illness, it’s thought that there could be more than 3,500 households in the West Berkshire area who need help.

Amanda and Jo believe the key to helping people who suffer from varying levels of hoarding disorder, ranging from people who are chronically disorganised to extreme hoarders, is patience and non-judgement.

Jo said: “Often, people find themselves in a situation that’s not of their own making. It can be that someone in their family has died, leaving them lots of stuff, or it could be a traumatic event such as grief, loss or divorce that a person can’t cope with, which manifests itself in hoarding. I am working with a gentleman whose late wife was a hoarder.  His wife’s compulsive shopping impacted on the couple’s finances and the spare room was lost to the accumulation of clothes and meant friends couldn’t stay. When the boiler broke down, he was so embarrassed at the state of the house that the boiler was never fixed.

“He now realises that hoarding is a mental health disorder and it has helped him in his grief to understand that his wife did not choose to compulsively buy and hoard.  I have been helping him clear his house bit by bit. Having lived with the hoard for over 20 years, it was important to work at a pace that suited him.  We are gradually organising the house so that he can regain some space for himself and transform what felt like a storage unit into a home.”

An expert in decluttering and an accredited member of the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers (APDO), Jo points out that “clutterbugs” and hoarders are very different.  Having 40 handbags does not necessarily make you a hoarder.

The plan for Hoarding Disorders UK is to expand the support group and its services to the whole of the UK.

More information can be found at http://hoardingdisordersuk.org/ and donations to continue the work are welcome at www.findmeagrant.org