When is a hoarder ready for prime-time?

I recently received a call from a woman looking for a professional organizing to help her best friend who is a hoarder. The hoarder has lived in her home for 10 years. The caller wanted to hire me to work with her best friend, if the best friend would agree. The caller also wanted an idea of how much it would cost to de-clutter her friends home, once I conducted an assessment. She explained that her hasn't been in this home for many years, but a mutual friend had and was allowed to take pictures, which were then sent to her. Based on these pictures, she was able to give me a good idea of the condition of her best friend's home. She felt an urgency to reach out to me, once she saw the condition of the home, and also shared that the mental health of her best friend is deteriorating from her feelings of hopelessness and depression. The hoarder feels that she's mentally and physically drowning in her garbage and anxiety.

The hoarder has had two other people help her with the de-cluttering process, but both interventions have not produced successful results.

The hoarder has been extremely frustrated with her lack of progress, as well as her lack of financial resources. She is on disability and could never afford a professional organizer on her own. Her benefactor was also not fiscally able to afford my services after an initial visit, but our plan was for her to contact everyone that is close to the hoarder, and ask if they would chip in for a certain number of hours to help us get a good start at de-cluttering and clearing the hoard.

In the meantime, the hoarder is working with a therapist colleague of mine, which is really great news. I won't work with a hoarder that is not working with a psychiatrist and/or therapist for their hoarding behavior. Anyway, the sad news is that the hoarder is sinking deeper into depression and the best friend has not contacted me again. But maybe she's working on getting financial backers to help with the project (that's my dream scenario for this hoarding client).

While I was working with the hoarder during my initial visit, she mentioned that she would like to be on one of the television shows about hoarders, so that she could have a crew come and clear her house, since she can't afford the help herself. I'm always being contacted by television shows looking to cast hoarders, and I don't have hoarding clients that are mentally healthy enough to be on T.V., for all the world to see their life and have cast and crew touching their possessions, etc. They also don't like the idea that the world would see the condition of their home. Their shame is too great and their mental state of mind too fragile. There are plenty of people that do want the cameras into their lives and I respect them greatly for that.

I've heard all kinds of stories from my colleagues that have participated in these shows, and they have had many mixed experiences.

Often, we've come to know that hoarders return to their disorganized, acquiring without discarding ways if left to fend for themselves. Aftercare is necessary. They have to feel confident and comfortable with new clutter management techniques. And this is something that is a learned behavior over time, with the help of a collaborative team of many including but not limited to a therapist, psychiatrist, family and/or friends, professional organizer, social worker, local agency (if applicable), etc. Not just a hoarder trying to figure it out on their own after the cameras and crew are gone. The ironic thing is that after I spoke to the hoarders' therapist a few days ago, the producer of TLC's "Buried Alive" contacted me looking for a hoarder to cast. I don't think this hoarder's mental health issues are up to having a T.V. crew in her home, but you never know. I will let her therapist know about this opportunity, since she is very keen on having an intervention of this sort. Tune in for further details on this situation. Your comments are welcome.