Quality of life, public safety at stake

Before firefighters in Cicero in Onondaga County could battle the blaze that engulfed a residence in August, they first had to overcome a "buildup of everything," according to Chief Jim Perrin.

Boxes, papers and "old stuff, new stuff" prevented their attempt to enter through the front door, and they confronted more clutter while fighting their way through the garage, he told The Post-Standard in Syracuse.

"There was only a narrow path," said Perrin, whose firefighters found the deceased resident between the kitchen and living room. "Everything else was piled from floor to ceiling."

That is the kind of tragedy Dutchess County officials are hoping to prevent with an initiative to help people overcome hoarding problems. Officials with the county's Health and Social Services departments recognized that "there are quite a few people hoarding" in Dutchess and proposed doing something to support them, said Jean-Marie Niebuhr, the county's mental health commissioner.



Working with a consultant, a task force that included those two departments and the Office for Aging designed a program that begins with an in-home assessment. Hoarders who want help are paired with an "interventionist" from the Department of Mental Health who seeks to ease their discomfort, or even distress, about discarding stuff. They also help people set interim goals, such as clearing a path to a particular part of the residence.

Convincing someone to accept help can be difficult, especially because hoarders can be driven by shame to isolation, but Dutchess has had some successes, said Niebuhr.

"It's even prevented homelessness, because sometimes these situations get so bad that an individual could be evicted from their place of residence or the fire inspector might say this place is uninhabitable," she said.

Someone driven to that extreme is considered to have a disorder that is listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, "the Bible of diagnoses in the world of mental illnesses," said Niebuhr. The problem affects about 2.6 percent of the population, but the rates are higher for people over age 60 and those with mental-health diagnoses such as depression, according to the American Psychiatric Association.

Hoarders are not just rabid collectors or poor housekeepers, but people so unable to discard stuff that their living space, and sometimes their porches and lawns, fill up.

"It gets to the point where a person's home is so full of stuff that you might not be able to cook on the stove, sleep on the bed or sit on the couch because there's stuff everywhere," Niebuhr said.

What people hoard can vary, ranging from newspapers to furniture, cars and animals, and the repercussions extend to family and neighbors living next to junk-filled properties. Firefighters in Beacon have encountered hoarding and are trained in how to adjust to the problems it presents, said Chief Tom Lucchesi.

Those problems go beyond restricting access during emergencies, he said. Hoarding "increases the fire load, causing fires to burn hotter and spread more rapidly," said Lucchesi. "In addition, pathways are often blocked, which can complicate both rescue and evacuation efforts, while also increasing the risk of injury or entrapment for responders."

Earlier this month, more than 200 animals were found at the home of a wildlife rehabilitator on Long Island, where authorities discovered a 95-year-old woman who they say was essentially trapped in her room due to clutter.



Cats, dogs, parrots, roosters, hedgehogs, chinchillas, guinea pigs, voles and flying squirrels were among the 206 animals found Oct. 1 at the home in Suffolk County. The residence was infested with insects and cluttered with debris, garbage and household waste, making certain areas impassable, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Dutchess has organized training sessions for staff at community organizations who may encounter people with the problem. Alon...