New treatment for hoarding disorder
Four years ago, 72-year-old Judy Nicholas was riding home on her motorbike when a car pulled out of nowhere. In a flash, the senior biker was knocked over and fractured almost every bone in her body. As the sole carer of two daughters suffering from mental illness', Judy considered what could have happened. “What if I had died on that occasion? I would’ve left my two girls a huge burden to get rid of my stuff,” she said. This tragedy was the wake up call that Judy needed to overcome her hoarding problem.
Judy began filling her home with clothes, furniture and knick-knacks over 40 years ago. She said: “You do it to make you happy … [but] it took me many years to realise that the happiness is only fleeting.” Her friend, Christine Thambipillai, described Judy’s Eastwood home as congested with clutter that spilled out into the garden. “It was potentially dangerous,” she said.
Despite reluctantly agreeing to attend a seminar and receive one-on-one psychological treatment 12 years ago, Judy was still acquiring things. She sought more help after her accident in 2012, this time, a group therapy program run by Lifeline. She said: “I stopped shopping, I stopped going to garage sales and I stopped picking things up from the side of the road.” For Judy, the support from other hoarders was vital to her success.
Hoarding disorder is the overwhelming difficulty to discard possessions, irrespective of their value. According to a report by Catholic Community Services (CCS), an estimated 600,000 people suffer from it in Australia. As one of them, Judy is concerned with the lack of treatment programs available. She said: “You might wait a year before you get help, and that’s not good enough … Hoarding destroys relationships.” In her case, Judy’s marriage ended after 41 years, partly due to the arguments and resentment caused by her hoarding.
Even though hoarding disorder was officially recognised by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013, a press release by CCS Hoarding and Squalor Taskforce said: “Australia still lacks fundamental knowledge of, and a national strategy for, addressing the problem.”
But, earlier this year, Swinburne University of Technology’s Dr. Maja Nedeljkovic and her team, published a paper in the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, regarding a new treatment for hoarding disorder. The community-based, psychological treatment was designed to run for 12-weeks, the equivalent of the 12 Medicare subsidised treatment sessions available to patients at the time. Group therapy was chosen, as it not only provides quick and effective treatment to several people at once, but also has the intrinsic benefit of normalising the disorder for patients. Dr. Nedeljkovic said: “What we basically found was that the program was effective at reducing hoarding symptoms, in many cases to a non-clinical level.”
However, a press release by the Australian Psychological Society stated that during 2013, the number of Medicare subsidised treatments was reduced from 12 to 10 individual and group sessions. Dr. Leanne Craze, director of a Western Sydney hoarding awareness group called, Project Uncover, remarking: “We aren’t going to see that increase, so what can we do about it? How can we best use what’s there?”
Looking to answer these same questions, Dr. Nedeljkovic and her team are currently evaluating a 10-week hoarding treatment to accommodate the new constraints. Dr. Nedeljkovic said: “we found that many individuals who have a hoarding disorder are not employed … and standard treatments, if not subsidised, can be very expensive. So we are trying to provide a treatment that people can access … and we hope that the 10-session program will be as effective as the 12-session program.” The research group are also trialling a new online program for patients to gain further affordable and effective support after their treatment.
Judy is now a recovering hoarder and a passionate advocate for mental health. Dr. Craze said: “She told me about her experience and her diagnosis of hoarding disorder, and I’ve had that confirmed by clinicians who work with Judy”. Because of her hoarding, Judy was asked to be the coordinator of Project Uncover’s self-titled ‘lived experience’ group, The Collectives. The group aim to assist health service providers to develop an accurate understanding of hoarding disorder and the skills required to treat patients. They will be presenting at the National Hoarding and Squalor Conference in Sydney later this month.
While Judy has managed to discard most of her possessions, two rooms remain full to the brim. But her fridge calendar, marked with public speaking engagements, group meetings and more, reflects a busy life. With a chuckle, she said: “I’m finding it really hard to de-clutter further because I’m out everyday doing something.”
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Judy's home before and after decluttering most of her possessions.
