Working with people who hoard
Develop and strengthen skills and approaches to working with people who hoard.
Develop and strengthen skills and approaches to working with people who hoard.
This workshop will explore the political, clinical and legal context related to hoarding in adult social care. It will outline research alongside, psychological and medical models that tell us why people hoard, as well as hearing from people with lived experience of hoarding.
Participants will use practice examples to examine hoarding through a risk perspective and rights-based approach and reflect on how their own biases may affect working with people that hoard. The workshop will provide helpful approaches to assessment, engagement and intervention in response to hoarding.
Designed for
Social care practitioners working directly with adults.
Learning outcomes
As a result of attending this workshop participants will be able to:
- Explain what hoarding is, why people hoard, and the impact of hoarding.
- Outline the clinical, policy and legal context related to hoarding.
- Assess hoarding from a risk perspective and rights-based approach.
- Reflect upon inequity and intersectionality, recognising how their biases may affect working with people who hoard.
- Identify helpful approaches to assessment, engagement and intervention in response to hoarding.
Booking information
This is a full day interactive session delivered via Microsoft Teams and you are encouraged to contribute with the aid of break-out rooms, the chat function and large group discussions. Participants will benefit from having a quiet space to work without interruption. Slides will be sent out after the session.
Research in Practice members can use their membership allocation to book this workshop. Link Officers can use the booking request form to book this workshop. Please only use this form if you are authorised to choose your organisation's membership allocation.
Once your booking is received, our learning team will work with you to confirm a delivery date and provide relevant information.
The deadline for booking this year’s online workshops is 17 October 2025.
Organisations that are not Research in Practice Partners can commission this workshop individually by contacting our learning team.
Working with people who self-neglect: Practice Tool (2020)
This resource aims to support adult social care practice with people who self-neglect through lack of self-care and/or lack of care of the domestic environment where risks to health or wellbeing are extreme and there is reluctance to take action to mitigate those risks.
Working with people who hoard: Frontline Briefing (2017)
The NHS estimates that between two and five per cent of adults in the UK may have symptoms of a hoarding disorder. Social care practitioners may have a role to play in supporting people who hoard. This work can be complex, and may necessitate a multi-agency response.
Let me get this straight: Hoardiculture
Hoarding is an undiscovered country. We are familiar with its objective reality, but its determinants remain ubiquitous, entrenched and elusive. Based on work taking place in Camden, this poem presents ideas around Hoardiculture.