NFPA Journal - Summer 2024 - 42

Eviction is
increasingly seen
as a last resort in
hoarding situations-responders
and
other
agencies work
collaboratively
to keep people in
their homes while
reducing the
hoarding risk. In
some cases, however,
the hoarding
problem is too
severe to manage
and can prompt
local authorities
to order that highrisk
properties
be vacated.
fire marshal contacts whoever made the report to
try and get as much information as possible. That
may include photographs, information about the
resident, and even interests and affiliations that
might be useful, said Volkert. She then makes calls
to the health department, social services case workers,
police, elder services, and others to get a group
together as quickly as possible to triage the situation.
She asks each agency if they've had prior contact with
the resident and what they know about the person.
Are they on the radar of social services? Are they a
regular at the senior center? Do they have family in
the area? " If there's a relationship that this person's
already built with some staff in another department,
we see if we can leverage that to try and get them to
cooperate and also to accept services from us, " Volkert
said. " People are going to be more likely to accept
those services if they already have that trust built in. "
That same day, after the group determines which
members are most appropriate for a given situation,
a team of three or four people visit the residence
together to speak with the person and begin the
often long process of working with them to make
their home safer.
At South Metro Fire Rescue, serving the suburbs
just south of Denver, this initial size-up and
triage is handled primarily by a trained clinician
named Mary Friedman, a fire department employee
who was hired last year as part of an expansion
of its public health program. As fire departments
take on an ever-larger role in addressing systemic
public health issues, well-resourced departments are
42 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2024
While the big picture around
hoarding remains uncertain,
individual cases tend to
vary in unpredictable ways
and rarely follow a script,
complicating things further
for fire departments.
increasingly hiring professionals like Friedman to
lead health-based risk-reduction programs and to
serve as a liaison to related city agencies.
When a hoarding referral comes in, Friedman
contacts the individual by phone to try to initiate a
face-to-face meeting in their home with her and one
of South Metro's community risk reduction professionals.
" While the CRR person is doing their safety
home assessment, I'm doing a psychosocial assessment, "
Friedman explains. " Last week, I went into
a home with Selena, our CRR person, and while
she was putting up fire alarms, I was talking to the
individual and trying to figure out what other needs
are not being met and resources we have in the community
to support them. "
In the case of an elderly resident prone to falls, that
could mean contacting a handyman to install support
bars or scheduling a community paramedic to visit a
couple of times a week. It could also mean arranging
transportation to medical appointments. For hoarding,
it generally means having a frank but empathetic
conversation about the safety concerns of the home
JAKE MAY/THE FLINT JOURNAL-MLIVE.COM VIA AP
http://www.JOURNAL-MLIVE.COM
NFPA Journal - Summer 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Summer 2024
