Donna

Donna is a hoarder. When you step into her house, there's just a narrow corridor for you to follow to reach the other rooms of the house. The halls have stacks to the ceilings. Every horizonal space has mountains of papers, clothes, and other possessions. All the blinds and curtains are tightly shut.

For her home visit with Paula, our Client Services Coordinator, Donna cleared a space in her living room. No one could sit on the couch or the chairs - they were piled high - but at least there was room so more than one person could stand and talk.

Donna is suspicious of nearly everyone. She will let you know who she feels has betrayed her or is up to no good. The list includes her members of her family, her neighbors, churches, a variety of social service organizations, the City of Issaquah, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services - in short, just about anyone who we might try to enlist to help her.

So far, though, she trusts Faith in Action. She uses our on-call transportation services to see the one medical provider she also trusts. Margie, our Volunteer Coordinator, selects her drivers with care. Some might be put off by Donna's strong negative opinions - Margie does her best to find Donna drivers who are experienced, easy-going, and non-judgmental.

With the many reality TV shows about hoarding (A&E 's "Hoarders"; TLC 's " Hoarding: Buried Alive "; and even "Clean House", where some folks are more than merely messy) you might think that Donna would benefit from a crew of Faith in Action volunteers coming in and throwing away all the things she has stacked up in her house. But experts warn that without psychological therapy to go alongside the "Clean Sweep", the loss of the items is highly traumatic to the hoarder. Donna herself reported that "some church ladies" one time came in to help her deal with her things, but that they threw away things that she wanted or hid things that she needed to know where they were.

I hope that our Faith in Action volunteers can continue to build trust with Donna. Maybe one day we can then refer her to help that she feels she can accept, and her home can be a place of light and air once more.

For more information, see: Faith in Action - Supporting Senior Independence