If you are concerned about the health and safety of a family member or a neighbour whose property and garden is excessively cluttered, a good place to start is calling their local council safeguarding team and contact their GP if you are a close relative.

If you are concerned about pest infestation or the poor condition of a family member or a neighbour property and garden due to excessive cluttered, a good place to start is calling their local council environmental health team.

If you are concerned about the health and safety of a family member or a neighbour whose property is excessively cluttered, a good place to start is calling their local council safeguarding team and the local fire service who can arrange a home safety visit.

When you are supporting a person organise and declutter their home, some key questions to consider is what they want to recycle, donate, sell, keep, or throw away.

We must remember the person could be feeling a shame, fear, loss, anxiety, depression, fear of been judged, has trust issues, feelings of been let down, past experiences with service have been bad, or too many officers trying to get their attention at the same time. Rule of thumb is just to be patient.

When you are helping a person on deciding what items to let go of, here are some key questions to consider. When was the last time I needed it? When was the last time I used it? How likely is it that I will use it in the future? What is my track record of using items like this? What is the impact of keeping the things in relation to my problem?

Whilst we may think this is a good idea for the person we love and care for, this can re traumatise the person if items are moved or got rid of without them knowing or without their consent. Best practise is to let the person decide and you just supervise the process, as trust, respect, consistency, been encouraging and patience will work eventually in your favour.

Whilst you may not be aware of many cases it important to be aware that we may have an unconscious bias of opinion about a person with hoarding behaviour, which has been influenced by the media, tv programmes, lack of knowledge and the pressure of your workload, lack of services or suitable treatment pathways.