Balancing dual roles when working with people who hoard. Unlike any other mental illness, hoarding creates risks and requires a lot of support. Here are some tips to balance the support and monitoring role that many of us struggle with.

1. When it feels
impossible

2. Balancing support
and monitoring
Often we have both roles which can be conflictual.
We all want to support people to reduce the risks but have
duty of care to monitor, assess and report hoarding risks.
‘they’ say we often err to one or the other, we will either be
mostly supportive or mostly monitoring

3. This may help
Step 1 – talk about
• Your Purpose
• Your Dual role
• your expectations
• Their expectations
• Your Use of authority – when, how and who?
• Your Negotiable and not negotiable

4. Step 2 – do
• Problem survey – according to client
• Problem ranking - identify practical problems
- include your definition and prioritise
• Setting goals
• Developing an agreement
• Develop strategies
• On-going monitoring
Adapted from ‘Working with Involuntary Clients,
A guide to practice. Trotter, Chris. 2006. Allen and Unwin.