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Workshop Offered To Help Identify Hoarding

REDMOND, OR -- A special workshop, Tuesday, in Redmond will focus on the behaviors of hoarding. Dr. Christiana Bratiotis, from the Portland State University School of Social Work, says hoarding impacts more than 16 million Americans. "It is the problem of accumulating too many possessions that, to other people, appear to be of useless value; and, clutter living environments so that it makes it hard for people to use rooms in their home for the purpose intended."

 

She tells KBND News hoarding behaviors can be seen in those as young as 11-years-old. "What we also know, however, is that hoarding has what we describe as a chronic and worsening course; meaning it does not get better on its own and will only get worse across a person’s lifetime. That’s why we sometimes think this is a problem of older adult years, because, by the time you get out to 50, 60 and 70 years old, you’ve had decades of time for the clutter to amass."

 

The one-day workshop at the Expo Center is designed to help medical and mental health professionals, elder-care workers and first responders better identify hoarding behavior and learn how to start the process of getting them help. "Sometimes a person with hoarding is able to say, ‘yes, I know this is a problem for me; yes, I want help.’" But, she says, "At other points, that same person might say, ‘no, it’s no problem at all. I can sleep on this one little corner of my bed; I don’t need the rest of my bed. Everybody else is bothered by this problem but I’m not.’"
 
More than 150 people are registered for the Redmond training, which is hosted by the Wellness and Education Board of Central Oregon
 

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