PROJECT FOCUS: Making Room was founded in response to the growing number of vulnerable adults in Hackney presenting to community services with chronic hoarding conditions.
LEAD PARTNERS: MRS Independent Living, with support from senior clinical psychologist, City & Hackney Specialist Psychotherapy Services & Hackney Council
Person- centred support for people with hoarding disorder
Making Room – providing help and advice for people who hoard in Hackney
Launched in 2014, Making Room provided a therapeutic de-cluttering programme to adults across London, drawn from Breda’s own experience working with adults who hoard and compulsively collect since 2010. This model of therapeutic de-cluttering puts the person in control of the decluttering process, and supports them to realise their decluttering goals while gaining insight into their collecting.
Using the extensive practical experience gained through case work, Making Room developed a working toolkit and outcome-driven framework of targeted support (based on the research and findings of Frost and Steketee) using a combination of trained staff and existing support services within the borough, funded through the One Hackney (NHS) programme.This co-ordinated support offered psychological and emotional therapy in parallel with practical support, going beyond traditional support models at the time which focused on the environmental conditions, and not the person.
This approach supported people with hoarding behaviours to identify, set and achieve their own priorities and personal goals for change. By agreeing time-limited contracts and working towards discrete goals set by the individual, clients had control over the pace and nature of the changes they made.
We designed a structured programme for our clients, which is based on their level of collecting and their readiness to engage with decluttering and change. Each programme is flexible depending on the goals of the client, and a programme typically started with one 2 hour session a week, working up to a maximum of 8 hours of de-cluttering support a week. We also signposted clients to access additional emotional support, such as peer support groups, therapy or counselling where appropriate.
“You feel that this is so bad that it’s overwhelming. You want to run away from it. But during the sessions with Making Room when somebody else is there with you, it put a focus on it, something to aim at. I have become better at deciding which things I really want to keep.”
“I bought all these things to bring back to my home country. They are men’s clothes, women, children and all sizes. I pictured myself going to the local church on a Sunday and giving them to the people. That was my dream, but my home country is very far and this got out of control. At least now I know that this is all going to charity. They are meant to be worn and it feels good to know that I’m helping somebody.”
“A policeman came to my house and he said he was going to report me. He judged me. He didn’t know that I lost all my family, he didn’t know anything about my life. “Life gets messy sometimes” I said. I tried to hide it for many years, I was really ashamed. I knew I could not continue like this, but I couldn’t do it alone. Working with Making Room was different. I didn’t feel judged, they do this all the time.”
“I had 3 blitz cleans in the past. They did make a lot of space but I felt lost in it. Unfortunately I kept collecting and things build up. One thing I liked about Making Room is that you give me the choice and we work as much better pace, room by room literally doing that – making room. I realized that I just had to do it. I’m more conscious about it now.”
