Mapo-gu Gifts a New Life to Elderly Living Alone with Hoarding Disorder

9-Ton Volume of Miscellaneous Trash Found at Home Visited for Simple Civil Complaint Verification; Cleaning and Disinfection Carried Out After Multiple Persuasions... Health Management and Home Repair Services Linked

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Mapo-gu (Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun) Whatsoever Consultation Desk has become a hot topic for not simply overlooking a minor complaint but changing the daily life of an elderly person and gifting a new life.

Last month, the Whatsoever Consultation Desk at Yonggang-dong Community Center in Mapo-gu received an inquiry from an elderly person asking if the broken glass on the front door of their house could be repaired.

The welfare planner who visited the home witnessed a large amount of miscellaneous items piled up inside and outside the house, accumulated over several years to an extent that was hard to estimate.

The elderly person had been living alone, collecting miscellaneous items and trash inside the house, outside, and in the alley for years. The amount of clutter accumulated by the elderly person living alone in a nearly 60-year-old old house reached as much as 9 tons.

The community center immediately held a case management meeting and decided that the house needed to be emptied, cleaned, and disinfected, and devoted efforts to persuading the elderly person accordingly.

However, the elderly person, who showed symptoms of hoarding disorder, strongly opposed the trash collection plan. After several persuasion attempts, permission for collection was finally obtained with the help of neighboring residents.

On the 28th, Mapo-gu deployed 14 cleaning personnel to begin collecting the trash piled up like a mountain inside the house. The house, filled with miscellaneous items and trash such as planks, discarded electronics, and plastic waste, only revealed some empty space after a full day of work.

Currently, due to the vast amount of work, priority collection, cleaning, and disinfection have been completed in some areas, and measures have been taken to ensure the elderly person's health is not compromised.

The elderly person was practically not receiving substantial care from family or relatives. Health checkups revealed weakened physical functions making movement very difficult, and symptoms such as ophthalmologic and dental diseases, hoarding disorder, and suspected dementia were discovered.

Accordingly, Mapo-gu selected the elderly person as a focused case management target and plans to conduct continuous monitoring and provide counseling and treatment linkage through mental health specialized institutions.

Additionally, through the home care physician project promoted by the district, house repairs will be carried out as soon as possible to enable living in a more comfortable environment.

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “By not just listening to the simple consultation of the complainant but actively handling the matter, we have changed the life of a marginalized neighbor,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to conduct administration that carefully examines even the smallest requests from residents.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.