How You Can Help a Loved One Who is Hoarding

If your loved one has dementia, there is a chance that they will develop an inclination toward hoarding. This aspect of the disease can take place whether the senior is living in a senior living environment, on their own, or under the care of a caregiver. While it’s usual for people to want to hold on to their beloved possessions, hoarding behaviors cross that line into collecting things that have no real sentimental or financial value.

Hoarding is symptomatic of mental illness such as dementia, and can lead to unsanitary conditions, physical and (further) mental impairments, isolation, loneliness, depression, etc. It can disrupt the senior’s daily life, as well as the lives of his or her caretaker, medical personnel, friends, and family.

Common hoarding characteristics include:

1. Items that the person is collecting have basically banished them from entire rooms, causing them not to be used as they were intended or once were. For example, a dining room – which in the past might have been utilized quite well for family Sunday dinners, etc., is now so overrun with items (clothing, trash, newfound possessions) that it can no longer be used for Sunday meals.
2. The person suffering from hoarding will keep things that other people don’t understand. A band aid, a piece of trash, a used paper plate, a scrap of paper with something unintelligible written on it.
3. Even though the individual wants to keep these items close by, the presence of the items aggravate the individual and cause them stress.

When it comes to people suffering from dementia, if they are going to develop hoarding characteristics it generally happens during the first or second stage. In addition to hoarding as described above, the person with dementia might also hide items and rummage through items in an effort to locate “lost” things. This only increases their disorientation, confusion, memory loss and impaired judgment.

How you can help someone who is hoarding

1. Offer to take pictures of the items that they “love” but don’t want to throw away.
2. Remove items that pose a safety or health hazard while the person is occupied with other activities.
3. Take all removed items off the premises, because the senior might rummage through the garbage looking for them.
4. Be patient and encourage the senior to “say goodbye” to items they have agreed to give to charity, etc.

Are you a senior living in the Fallston area and would like information about in home senior care in Aberdeen or about assisted living homes in Baltimore County? Contact the Always Best Care Fallston location today at 410-877-3787 to set up a free care consultation today.