Brain damage linked to senile squalor

Brain damage influencing a person’s planning, social awareness, and judgment may be the main reason for elderly people living in squalor according to Caulfield Hospital researchers in Victoria.

Professor Steve McFarlane of Caulfield’s Aged Psychiatry Service said the keys to squalor rested in the frontal lobe of the brain.

“If we look hard enough we’ll find these deficits and hopefully be able to do something about them,” he told The Age newspaper.

“Sometimes there’s direct evidence. I came across one lady recently who had had a frontal lobe lobotomy and was living in squalor. There are people who have had other frontal lobe issues like a stroke or head injuries and they end up living in squalor.”

A condition known as “senile squalor” – which includes houses filled with piles of rubbish and hoarded items along with dirty kitchens and toilets – affects one in 2,000 in Australia overall and one in 700 people over 65.

The Caulfield team intends studying the frontal lobes of 50 people suffering senile squalor over the next two years using a scanner or similar imaging device. It could then be possible to establish if drugs like those used for Alzheimer’s could be introduced for treatment, Professor McFarlane said.

Help is available. An online toolkit has been launched to assist organisations providing services to people who live in severe domestic squalor.

It is the only website of its type in Australia and the world’s first interactive squalor resource.

Developed by Catholic Community Services in New South Wales, the toolkit contains information about hoarding disorders and a list of agencies in central Sydney which can provide support services for people living in squalid conditions.

The website also has a section called ‘Pathways through the Maze’ which offers tailored advice to visitors based on their responses to a list of questions.

Catholic Community Services has been running a squalor service in the City of Sydney for the past two years.

The senior coordinator of the group’s homelessness, mental health and disability services, Susan Graham, said the toolkit was designed to help people understand the complexities of hoarding and squalor.

“What we find is that people find someone in this environment and they are confronted by what they see,” she said.

“They think someone should get in there quickly and fix it up but what you need is a measured response based on a proper assessment.

“The solution may involve attending to the environment but it’s often the case that the person has to have guardianship and be placed. You need to be looking at whole picture, not just the clean up if you want a sustainable solution.”

Visit http://catholiccommunityservices.com.au/squalorandhoarding/ for more information.