“Making It Easier to Live, You Know?” A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Hoarding Behaviours and Social Networks on Older People’s Supported Housing Decisions

Abstract

The decision to move from independent to supported housing is a key life decision. Research focusing on the potential barriers to transition to supported housing for people with hoarding behaviours and the impact of social networks on the decision‐making process is scarce. 16 participants, including 4 participants with hoarding behaviours, took part in in‐depth semistructured interviews providing information about their social networks, support received, their perceptions of supported housing, and their decisions made. Relatives and friends were the most widely reported networks of support for discussing supported housing options for participants both with and without hoarding behaviours. Three key themes were extracted from the dataset: Before the Move: Crisis and Stigma; During the Move: Possessions and Support; and After the Move: Supported Housing = a Bright Tomorrow. The data revealed stigmatised and negative perceptions of supported housing prior to moving, with a crisis event initiating the move in most cases. For people with hoarding behaviours, existing life traumas proved an additional barrier. All participants reported “moving day” as an acutely stressful event, and participants with hoarding behaviours reported greater stress and anxiety over possessions. All moved participants reported living in supported housing as a positive outcome. Three key considerations are apparent: awareness raising to combat stigmatised perceptions of supported housing; targeted support during the moving process to manage and pre‐empt problems; promoting supported housing as a positive environment and making participants, and their networks aware, potentially reducing the perceived impact of the move. Further research with a larger, and more socially and geographically diverse sample of individuals with and without hoarding behaviours, is recommended to further explore these considerations.