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CANADA POST MENTAL HEALTH FOUNDATION GRANTS FUNDS FOR A PILOT PROJECT AT THE SASKATOON HOUSING COALITION
The Board of Directors and staff are pleased to announce that the Canada Post Mental Health Foundation has granted funding to demonstrate a model of intensive support services to individuals who have severe hoarding issues. This pilot will be in place from October 2009 to September 2010. Through the generosity of teh Canada Post Mental Health Foundation, the Saskatoon Housing Coalition outreach staff can demonstrate and learn a new approach to working with individuals who need to change their behaviours around accumulating an overabundance of items in their living space. Since we are also working jointly with the Saskatoon Health Region Mental Health and Addiction Services by its staff faciliating the clinical support group, the outcome is that this pilot will demonstrate the need to continue to offer this intensive supportive program beyond the pilot phase.
Project Overview The program is structured into two concurrent parts consisting of an intensely focused approach utilizing a clinical based support group which meets for 20 weeks of programming and community outreach support services to program participants in their homes. The community outreach servcies will consist of weekly home visits to support the individuals through the material and exercises that was provided in the support group. After completion of the support group, the participants will continue to receive a further 20 weeks of community support. Essentially, the support staff will be assisting the person(s) through the processs of what is contributing to their hoarding behaviours, evaluating the value of the items, and supporting the clients' decision-making process of discarding, donating to other or recycling items.
It is estimated that two (2%) of the general population is living with chronic hoarding behaviours which is seen in those with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Compulsive hoarding is such a complex issue for the individual and in developing effective community intervention strategies. Three features define complusive hoarding: (1) the accumulation and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to most people to be useless or of limited value, (2) extensive clutter in living spaces that precludes activities for which the rooms were designed and (3) significant distress or impairment in functioning caused by hoarding (Frost and Hartl, 1996). Due t the health and safety issues within their living enviroment, these individuals are eventually evicted from rental units or if they own their homes the public health department becomes involved and citation orders are issued which leads to eviction and possibly homelessness. Since the Saskatoon Housing Coalition provides mental health residential services in Saskatoon, we estimate that at least 10% of our clients have this disorder and they are also the most challenging group to work with on changing their behaviours around this issue.
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