Colleagues support Bob to turn his life around after hoarding

A customer who was hoarding has “turned his life around” thanks to the help of Amplius colleagues.

Bob, not our customer’s real name, admitted to being distressed, anxious and fearful after his hoarding was discovered by our electricians when they couldn’t get into his home for a routine safety inspection.

Our Customer Partner Team arranged a visit to see Bob the next day and reassured him that his safety was their priority and that we wanted to help.

It was clear to our colleagues that Bob’s home wasn’t safe for him to live in, which caused him to become very upset. He was taken to one of our nearby extra care schemes to get him a cup of tea and to work out the next steps.

Bob revealed to our Customer Partner that he’d lost both of his parents and his best friend within a year, causing him to turn to alcohol to cope with the loss and isolation he was experiencing.

Despite overcoming his alcohol addiction, the clutter in his home had become too much to deal with.

We managed to arrange for Bob to stay in the guest suite at the extra care scheme while plans were made to clear his home.

After years of isolation, it was clear Bob enjoyed the social aspect of living at the scheme and liked being around other people, so our colleagues looked into the possibility of moving Bob into the scheme permanently.

They were successful in helping him with an application for a vacant flat and two months later, our Customer Partner visited Bob in his new home.

He was now a confident and happy man, eager to show off his new living arrangements.

Bob explained how his health conditions had improved, that he could now cook healthy meals in a clean kitchen and he spoke about how his finances had stabilised with the support of our Financial Wellbeing Team.

He also beamed as he told our colleague all about his new friends at the scheme, what they do for fun and how they help each other out.

Bob went on to say that the intervention of our colleagues, despite the shame he felt that his secret was now out, was the best opportunity he could have been given to be able to turn his life around.