MindSpace to offer course to help hoarders

People who struggle with excessive clutter at home can sign up for a free 16-week support programme.

Run by MindSpace Stamford, ‘Buried in Treasures’ is aimed at people who have difficulty using rooms in their home because they are full of belongings, or who have stopped letting people visit their home because of all their accumulated ‘stuff’.

Hoarding is thought to affect about one in fifty people, equating to about 1,000 households in Stamford and more than a million in the UK.

Kat Band of Hoarding Disorders UK lives in Stamford and is one of a small team facilitating the course for MindSpace.

She said: ‘Hoarding has only relatively recently been recognised as a mental health disorder, yet is more prevalent than schizophrenia.

“It’s a coping mechanism that’s gone wrong and is often a response to experiencing traumatic life events.”

The Buried in Treasures programme was developed in the United States and recognises that the underlying causes of hoarding are not solved by ‘having a clear out’.

The programme aims to address factors such as self-esteem, community connections and having meaning in life. The project aims to reduce hoarding behaviours, including compulsive acquisition, and improve decision-making.

Sessions will be relaxed and confidential among those who attend, and free from judgment. Participants will receive a copy of a Buried in Treasures book to keep, and in time will develop strategies to address compulsive purchasing and acquisition habits, and to declutter.

The course begins from 6.30pm to 8.30pm on Wednesday, April 9, at the MindSpace Hub, 39 Broad Street, Stamford. People can self-refer by calling 07563 385273 or emailing info@mindspacestamford.com.

Alternatively, contact Kat Band for a confidential discussion on 07884 484629 or by emailing kat.band@hoardingdisordersuk.org.