John Kavanagh
LHT Tenancy Support Officer
Daily Living
1.2 million & 3.7 million People
Why Is Hoarding A problem?
The Individual Problems
A high % of people suffer injuries & health problems
A persons mental health can deteriorate
It can lead to death – 1 in 4 Fire Fatalities involve
hoarded households
It causes significant damage to the physical make up of
our properties
Huge financial costs to housing, health, fire service and
local authorities
Cost to Housing
Missed Gas Appointments (£1,500)
Disruption to planned replacement programmes (£4,000)
Tenancy Enforcement & court action (£6,500)
Clearance Costs (£3,500)
Repairs required to the property after the clearance (£6,500)
Long Voids (£1,800)
Relet Costs (£800)
Staff Time (£10,000)
£35,000 - £50,000 per hoarder
How Housing Deals with
Hoarding
Case Study – How Housing Deals
With Hoarding
A single male who became an LHT tenant in 1988
He would acquire items from local bins and skips
He found it extremely difficult and distressing to
discard items
He couldn’t use his property and the rooms within
them for their intended purpose
LHT provided skips and contractors to clear the hoard
after many attempts to make the tenant do it
themselves
Case Study – How Housing Deals
With Hoarding
Case Study – Before, During, After?
AFTER
BEFORE
DURING
Case Study – How Housing Deals
With Hoarding
The hoard didn’t just return – it got worse
He began ‘Animal Hoarding’ and had in excess of 15
stray cats in his property
Between 1988 and 2011 LHT moved him twice due to
hoarding as his flats became unliveable and
dangerous
His Hoarding Disorder was never dealt with and
ultimately he was evicted from his third tenancy in 2011
The cost to LHT over this period of time was in excess
of £75,000 approx.
Our approach to supporting
dealing withhoarders
hoarders
Outside The Box Approach
Recognising Hoarding Disorder as a Mental
Health condition
and
Delivering practical support and therapeutic
intervention together to provide long term treatment to
sufferers
Outside The Box Toolkit
Outside The Box Toolkit
The LHT Outside the Box Toolkit includes everything that is
required to support a tenant suffering from Hoarding Disorder.
The Toolkit consists of assessment tools and booklets to help the
tenant make changes and prepare them to carry out clearances
Every aspect is done in a simple, visual and targeted way using a
person centred approach
Outside The Box Toolkit
LHT Outside The Box splits the process of managing a hoard into 3 stages:
STAGE 1 - BOXED IN
STAGE 2 - SORTING
STAGE 3 - BOXED OFF
Outside The Box Toolkit
Co-Therapy
Specialist Support Staff
Engaging correctly with a hoarder is key
Work without judgement, get to know them as a person
Build a relationship
Use of CBT techniques
Utilised existing resources to deliver service
We provide the bridge to prepare someone to begin therapy
– something they may never have considered alone
Therapeutic Intervention
Housing & Health
OTB
Health and Housing Partnership
Difficult to work with hoarders
No practical help and support at home
Therapeutic gain limited
Natural partnership
Housing able to provide this practical support
‘co-therapists’
Group Workshop
Developed a partnership with our local Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service –
in Liverpool ‘Talk Liverpool’
The only Hoarding Group Therapy Programme in the UK that links in with Housing
Talk Liverpool and LHT jointly run the programme
10 sessions across 12 weeks delivered by CBT Therapists
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) Model specifically designed for people who hoard
Group Workshop
Understanding
Hoarding
Managing
The Future
Sorting
Possessions
Considering
Changes
Challenging
Acquiring
The Outside The Box toolkit is used in the sessions and the
therapy links back to the toolkit when used at home
Therapy Manual
Outside The Box Hoarding Disorder
Therapy Workbook
Acting as ‘Co-Therapist’ in tenants
homes we help them with a series
of tests, experiments, assessments
and exercises that they have
learned in the group therapy
sessions
Case Study – Bill’s Story
Outside
The
Box
–
Pilot
Case
Who Lives In A House Like This?
Don’t mention the hoard!!
Outside The
Box
–
Pilot
Case
Bills Story
1 2
3 4
Bills Story
Bill attended all of the Hoarding Therapy
sessions
Self recognition & understands why he
hoards
He knows how to improve his life and
wants the change to remain
He’s done all the work himself and made
his own decisions
Bill
Peer Support Group
Support and help each other
STIGMA
Provides advice/support to wider community
Computer access/life-skills classes/days out/theatre
trips/health & wellbeing activities
Brings people together who do live in isolation
www.Hoarders Helping Hoarders.co.uk
Outcomes
It is estimated that working this way and stopping those negative
hoarding behaviours has saved LHT:
£487,593 (£32,506 per person)
based on 15 residents
Based on our Hoarding Disorder Impact
Assessments, fire risks have reduced from
84.47% to 13.08%
We have recycled and given to charity over
9,500 kg in weight…..rather than letting it go
to landfill
Outcomes
Social value savings created by the service averaged
- £56,099
per person (HACT figures)
Residents reached
Benefit period
Value to residents - quality of life
Value to LHT (potential resource savings)
Value to Central Govt
Value to Local Govt
TOTAL (HACT substitutes)
15
2
£758,697
£487,593
£28,461
£54,331
£1,329,082
Based on figures produced by HACT
Estimated to have averted £0.83p in NHS costs for every £1 spent
Larger saving of £2.87 to government for every £1 spent
Overall value in terms of wellbeing, costs saved (to LHT, and government including the
NHS) is £30.57 for every £1 spent.
We empower people to seek the outcomes they want
without having solutions imposed upon them.
Thank You