The aim of this group is to bring people together who have experienced or are experiencing hoarding issues. This could be those with hoarding issues themselves, or friends, partners, or family of those currently experiencing hoarding.
Within a safe, caring, and supportive environment group participants are invited to share experiences and to offer encouragement to others.
You do not need to have a clinical diagnosis, or have a GP referral, to join these meetings. If you feel you are not coping with managing to maintain your home the way you would like, and this is causing you distress or concern, this group is for you.
Karen Lock, our Domestic Fire Safety Officer, facilitates the group. Karen is a trained counsellor with previous experience as an Advocate facilitating peer support groups.
(For instance: we have previously invited guest speakers to a session, such as Paul Salkovskis Professor of Clinical Psychology Director of Oxford Institute of clinical psychology training and research, Jo Cooke from Hoarding Disorders UK – we have also had Mind along to provide a mindfulness session, explaining how to practice it and how it can help with mental health problems).
Year | Month | Date |
|---|---|---|
2024 | October | 10 |
October | 24 | |
November | 7 | |
November | 21 | |
December | 12 | |
2025 | ||
January | 9 | |
January | 23 | |
February | 6 | |
February | 20 | |
March | 6 | |
March | 20 | |
April | 3 | |
April | 17 | |
May | 1 | |
May | 15 | |
May | 29 | |
June | 12 | |
June | 26 | |
July | 10 | |
July | 24 |
Contact Karen Lock, Hoarding Support facilitator by:
Please provide your name, contact number and enquiry and she will get back to you as soon as possible.
If you decide to join a group telephone session, you will be asked to confirm by 1pm the day of the meeting and a telephone number will be sent to you, so that you can call at the time of the session.
These meetings are NOT video calls. They are a link up call so you can hear and talk to Karen and the others who join up by phone, which means that you can speak in privacy.
Safeguarding simply means to protect people’s health, wellbeing and human rights and enable them to live free from harm, abuse and neglect.
Although the support group offers a confidential environment to discuss hoarding, if the facilitator feels that something has been disclosed that is cause for concern to either the person present, or someone else, then they have a Safeguarding duty under the Care Act 2014 to report this matter to the most relevant Safeguarding service.
While everyone is free to join the group whenever they wish, it would be useful for us to gain a better understanding of where people are from and how they heard about the group.
As we are linking up on the phone, we will collect this information when you enquire about joining the group. If you wish to, you will be invited to provide us with details such as full name, address, telephone number and how you heard about the group.
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018, no information will be shared that identifies any individuals. Information will only be used to help us ensure the group is reaching the right people in the right way.
Please feel free to invite friends, family and/or carer’s along to the group.
All we ask is that they have a personal connection to hoarding.
We have capacity for approximately 10 people on the group call sessions, however if we look like we are getting close to this number we will let you know.
Depending on demand, we are willing to put on extra sessions to accommodate numbers.
Finally, we are keen for this support group to be shaped by what the participants wish to get out of it. We look to participants to tell us what type of support they would like and when.
So, if you have a comment or suggestion to make, please do so.
After each group session:
We have a range of resources to support group members, which can be emailed out on request.
These include:
Please contact Karen if you would like to receive any of this information or would like to talk more about Hoarding.
