Middlesex DA Leads Training For Police, Community on Hoarding and the Elderly

WOBURN – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan led a training session for community service providers and first responders to discuss how hoarding, clutter and related behaviors can be warning signs of an older person’s vulnerability to crime. The Oct. 1 program encouraged a coordinated response from public agencies and private companies offering assistance.  

“Hoarding can affect personal safety in many different ways. Community service agencies – police, fire, health inspectors, housing departments, legal services -- see people who may be susceptible to crimes ranging from financial scams to physical abuse,” District Attorney Ryan said. “Different agencies see pieces of the bigger picture and this training will prepare them for handling sensitive, personal conversations.”

A house fire prompted ideas for this training, District Attorney Ryan added, after a firefighter was injured on darkened stairs packed with a hoarder’s belongings. Emergency calls at a hoarder’s home can be risky for both residents and responders when clutter provides fuel for fire or blocks exits.

More than 80 community partners participated in the half-day program at the District Attorney’s Woburn office. Police and fire departments, social service agencies, home health care providers and experts or agencies in mental health services, community outreach, animal protection and elder law sent representatives. One goal is a developing a multi-disciplinary response, said District Attorney Ryan, because hoarding is often a symptom of more complex issues.

Hoarding may affect as much as five percent of the U.S. population, and has links to other conditions such as depression, anxiety, and trauma, said program speaker Dr.  Gail Steketee, dean of the Boston University School of Social Work. The average age of hoarders she sees is between 50 and 55 years old, she said, although the behavior can start decades earlier. Some risks associated with hoarding are fire, injury from fall, unsanitary conditions and medical consequences.

Other speakers included Sergeant Martha Parkhurst, of the MSPCA Law Enforcement Department, Betsy Crimmins, a senior attorney at Boston Legal Services, and Tobe A. Conway, a protective service worker from Minuteman Senior Services.

Newton has a task force on hoarding that includes multiple agencies, said Linda Walsh, Newton’s Interim Commissioner of Health and Human Services, a presenter at the training. City police, fire, housing inspection, community social workers and independent service providers are part of a six-step process when any city agency identifies a hoarding environment.

A Middlesex District Attorney’s Office program called Leaders in Elder Abuse Prevention (LEAPS) encourages seniors, health care workers and other agencies to report signs of abuse or neglect. Other initiatives include the File of Life, a pocket-sized document for listing personal or medical information that might be needed in an emergency.

Middlesex County is the largest county in Massachusetts and one of the largest counties in the country with 54 towns and cities and 26 colleges in urban, suburban, and rural areas, comprising over one quarter of the population of Massachusetts. The Middlesex District Attorney’s Office has offices throughout the county, including communities such as Ayer, Cambridge, Concord, Framingham, Lowell, Malden, Marlborough, Natick, Newton, Somerville, Waltham and Woburn.