Home support and hoarding social enterprise, Cardea were delighted to receive news that they had been awarded a grant of almost £10,000 by the National Lottery.
The funding is to develop the specialist hoarding and de-cluttering service, help save people from eviction and to improve understanding across the community.
This one-year pilot with funding of £9,482 will enable the Andover-based team to give talks and promote the service as well as developing the model to ensure sustainability in the future.
In response to a gap in the market, Cardea was established as a social enterprise to provide a range of care services aimed at enabling people at risk of hospitalisation or other institutional care to remain living independently.
About a third of people with whom Cardea currently work, have signs of a hoarding disorder, defined by the NHS as ‘where someone acquires an excessive number of items and stores them in a chaotic manner, usually resulting in unmanageable amounts of clutter.’
This can lead to health problems and for some people this disorder reaches the point where they are at risk of eviction. At this level of severity, people need specialist help. This service is aimed at helping those most at risk to overcome the disorder and so keep hold of their homes.
Cardea General Manager, Lesley Shenton said, “We are extremely pleased to have received this funding. We know there are currently people in our borough who are facing eviction because of a hoarding disorder and this funding will enable us to not only tackle this issue but also help us to share the learning giving workers in the community a greater understanding of the complexities of this serious disorder.”
Locally, Unity social prescription service has shown 20% of those receiving a social prescription have a hoarding disorder. The disorder is recognised by the NHS (see by clicking here).
It is associated with a range of mental health problems and requires a co-ordinated response that is both practical (clearing the clutter) and psychological (treating the underlying condition to prevent an immediate recurrence). Just dealing with one part of the problem is almost always ineffective.
For more information please contact Cardea by telephone on 01264 523490 or by email to info@cardea.ltd
