Social care responses to self-neglect and hoarding among older people
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Social care responses to self-neglect and/or hoarding among older people: what works in practice?
IRAS ID
295747
Contact name
John Woolham
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
This study will explore how professionals and other workers can help older people living at home who do not look after themselves (this is known as ‘self-neglect’) or hoard their possessions to such an extent that this becomes a major problem. This can be very distressing and harmful for the older person and family members are often very troubled as well. We want to find out what is happening and what might improve things for these older people, or the way help is organised.
The study has three phases. First, we will collect research articles and examples of local documents telling staff how they should work in these circumstances. Second, we will talk to senior managers in 27 areas, to ask about how support for older people who self neglect or hoard is organised. Finally, we will collect more detailed information from six selected local areas to compare how support is offered in each area to older people who self-neglect or hoard, and their families. For this, we will talk to local managers, social workers and practitioners from different organisations. We will ask them about how support offered to people who self-neglect or hoard is organised, whether this is working well and how it could be improved. The costs of different ways of helping older people who self-neglect or hoard will also be explored. We will also talk to older people who are, or have been neglecting themselves or hoarding, their family or key workers, to ask about their experiences and views.
The study will help tell us how social care staff work with the NHS, police, fire services, home care agencies, voluntary sector, and housing providers. It will suggest how to improve practice and also help understanding about the costs of different approaches.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/WM/0109
Date of REC Opinion
30 Apr 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion