Children of hoarders support group

[KangarooBlue]

Any other children of hoarders here? How do you deal with the hopelessness and despair?

My dad (age 75) is a hoarder. He has been ever since my mum left him. I was 5 at the time. I hated staying at his place as ir was always dirty, cold, and full of junk. These days (I’m in my 30s now), it’s indescribable. There’s no electric, no gas, rubbish everywhere, roofs falling in… I could go on.

He won’t move. My siblings and I have tried everything. As he has capacity and owns the house, I don’t think there’s anything we can do? I want to involve social services but my brothers won’t let me.

How long has he been without running water? How on earth does he manage? He won't be able to use the toilet or even have a wash, never mind a bath or a shower.

It does sound as though you should contact Adult Social Services as his living situation is so dire and probably dangerous, but if you don't feel able to do that, speak to Age Concern or Age UK for advice.

I think it might be worth contacting the local fire brigade. They do a lot of home visits to hoarders and can assess risk. They’ll also make referrals to social services.

Severe Hoarding is now classified as a mental health illness so social services can get involved if a person doesn’t have the capacity to assess the risks themselves or if there is risk from the property to others (ie; neighbours).

Social services sometimes have specialist social workers who support hoarders, links with hoarding organisations, specialist psychiatric help , can fund blitz cleans etc. It’s a very hard disorder to manage. Unfortunately I have known two severe hoarders die in domestic fires.

Thanks. I hadn’t considered Age Concern.

As for the water situation, I don’t know how he’s been coping. He does have a girlfriend he stays with sometimes so I presume he showers there, but I don’t know.

Realise I’m posting on an old thread. But wondering if anyone here grew up as a child of a hoarder. I did and it was extreme