Posted on Mon, Apr. 23, 2007

MEETING IN TOPEKA

Hoarding problem gets state attention

BY DEB GRUVER
The Wichita Eagle

But it's a serious problem that can affect people's health and public safety, the director of the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging said Friday.

A statewide meeting about hoarding begins today in Topeka as leaders of several agencies get together to talk about the issue.

Annette Graham, director of the agency's Central Plains region, said it's difficult to know how often hoarding occurs because usually it goes unreported.

It often starts behind closed doors.

Unused spare rooms get filled to the point where doors won't open. Basements or garages are stuffed to overflowing.

The Office of Aging and Long Term Care at the University of Kansas' School of Social Welfare will release results of a study on hoarding today in Topeka.

A statewide hoarding task force has been meeting for about a year.

The clinical diagnosis of hoarding, Graham said, is the acquisition of and failure to discard a large number of possessions of limited or useless value. When it begins to limit a person's activities, it becomes a problem.

"It can result in code and fire violations," Graham said. "It can lead to extreme rodent or insect infestation. It can be the hoarding of animals, which leads to neglected animals. It can be a collection of debris in and outside the home, which leads to blight."

Blight has become an issue in Wichita, where officials and neighbors have made headlines for trying to get homeowners to clear junk from yards and lots.

Law enforcement and social service agencies usually learn about hoarding after health or other problems come to their attention.

Some cases seem more bizarre than others: In 2000, Wichita firefighters discovered 40 to 60 cats stuffed in plastic bags inside two freezers when they responded to a fire at a home near North Bluff. Several live cats were in the home, too.

The homeowner admitted she hoarded cats, often scraping dead ones off the road and storing them in freezers in her home.

Mental health professionals often consider hoarding a compulsion. Collecting items can provide a sense of security, but the clutter can provoke anxiety -- leading to still more collecting.

Hoarding is not just a problem for the elderly, Graham stressed.

"It typically starts at a much younger age," she said. "The person may be able to manage the situation when they are younger, but when they become older, they have health problems or cognitive problems and then it becomes apparent to others outside those individuals and their families."

SIGNS OF HOARDING

Now you know

• An accumulation of items that seems out of hand and beyond normal clutter

• Obsession with keeping items of little or no value

• Piles of belongings that interfere with the ability to use a home the way it's supposed to be used. For example, there may be no room to sleep on a bed. Stacks of books or papers may block a bathroom or bedroom. Or there may be a path snaking through the home.

For more information about hoarding, call Krista Lovette at the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, 316-660-5222.cq

Reach Deb Gruver at 316-268-6400 or dgruver@wichitaeagle.com.

http://www.kansas.com/212/story/51764.html