Clutter & Hoarding - Solutions Through Community Risk Reduction

If you’re a first responder, you’ve come across “heavy content” properties and homes. That’s “polite-speak” for severe clutter or hoarding. And many of us have responded to some type of call there, from a trip and fall or critical illness, to an actual working fire. All of us in fire, police and EMS want to do something about these problems in our community, but there never seems to be enough people, funding or motive to drive a solution, until sadly, it’s too late.
Our returning guest is Shanna Perino, a Certified Professional Organizer. She has been working in this field for nearly two decades and has seen it all. She has studied the issues of clutter and hoarding and as you’ll hear, the causes are more than you may suspect. However, she has also been working on the mitigation of these issues together with first responder partners, as well as members of the community.
Being certified as a Fire Inspector II by the KY State Fire Marshall and now preparing for the NFPA Fire Protection Specialist Certificate, Shanna shares with us that the issue is more than one of just hoarding. In truth, we must work together in a new initiative (at least in the U.S.) called Community Risk Reduction.
Listen in and see how this goes much further than just fire prevention and the rewards both the community and its residents can reap.