Firefighters rescued a man in his 70s in South Dublin after he had become trapped in his home for about 14 hours due to hoarding of rubbish and belongings.
Dublin Fire Brigade found the man stuck under a pile of collected rubbish and belongings hoarded inside a house in the Crumlin-Drimnagh area. He was taken to St James’s Hospital for observation for back injuries suffered as a result of being trapped, said a spokesman for the brigade.
The fire brigade posted a photograph of firefighters attending to the man’s cluttered home and warned people to be aware of the dangers posed to people who hoard at home.
“Hoarding is a disorder that needs treatment and managing. Apart from an obvious fire and escape risk, hoarding is a health risk,” said the fire brigade.
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It advised anyone who knows of someone who hoards to speak to the GP for advice.
“Unfortunately, this is not an unusual scenario,” said Sean Moynihan, chief executive of Alone, the charity for older persons.
“We come across cases like this weekly right across the country. It is a condition and it needs to be managed.”
In many cases, the hoarding is only discovered when a person has to go to hospital for an appointment and the charity is contacted seeking help from relatives or friends, he said.
“Sometimes it is down to loneliness or mental health: the person invests quite a lot of emotion in their goods or property, and emotionally it is very hard to let go of them,” he said.
“Clearing out a house is not the way to go. If you did clear out the house without talking to the person or getting advice from professionals, you will impoverish the person. What might seem like a good deed is something that can really damage the individual.”
Mr Moynihan said that in some cases it has taken years for a house to become full and that it was a process that the person “had to come back from” and can take time to resolve.
The World Health Organisation classified hoarding as a medical disorder in 2018, characterising it as an “accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of — or difficulty discarding — possessions, regardless of their actual value.”
It is estimated that hoarding can be a problem for up to 5 per cent of the population.
According to the HSE, hoarding might be a symptom of another condition or may be a result of someone with mobility problems who is unable to clear huge amounts of clutter or someone with learning disabilities who cannot categorise or dispose of items.
Mental health problems associated with hoarding include severe depression, psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia or obsessive compulsive disorder.
In some cases, hoarding can be a condition in itself and associated with self-neglect.
People who hoard are more likely to live alone, be unmarried, have had a deprived childhood, have a family history of hoarding or have grown up in a cluttered home.
The HSE says people who hoard may have strong beliefs about acquiring items and throwing them away or may be struggling with a stressful life event such as the death of a loved one.
“‘Attempts to discard things often bring up very strong and overwhelming emotions. So the person hoarding often tens to put off or avoid making decisions about what can be thrown out,” says the HSE on its information page about the disorder.
