Facts

• A Guardianship is a protective arrangement established by the court system on behalf of a mentally incapacitated individual. Most frequently, Guardianships are established on behalf of older adults who have lost mental capacity due to senile dementia, major strokes, and severe mental illness, among other condition
• Hoarding is characterized by the acquisition of and failure to discard a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value: the excessive collection and retention of things or animals to the point that they interfere with functioning.
• Falls are a leading cause of injuries, hospitalizations, and deaths among the elderly. In the United States, one of every three adults aged 65 or older falls each year.
• A vulnerable adult is a victim of maltreatment when he or she is subjected to abuse, neglect or financial exploitation.
• Any of the following acts against a vulnerable adult constitutes abuse:

• Assault
• Drug use as a means to injure or commit a crime
• Acts of prostitution
• Criminal sexual conduct
• Physical acts such as hitting, slapping, kicking, pinching, biting or corporal punishment
• Verbal threats (or other malicious or derogatory remarks or gestures) which are neither an accident nor therapeutic conduct

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Synod Services

Available to individuals and families living in Southeast Michigan:

• Safety Checks - Support in maintaining a safe and healthy living environment, including habitability inspections, fire and severe weather safety education, problem solving and limit setting with visitors, assistance identifying need for adaptive devices
• Guardianship and Protective Service – Assistance investigating and pursuing suspected cases of financial exploitation or abuse; Legal needs assessment; Attorney preparation and filing of petitions; Hearing representation when needed.
• Care Manager – Provision of full “wrap around” support to coordinate care, provide oversight, advocacy and maintenance of benefits
• Hoarding Abatement - Following best practices of the harm reduction model, Synod works hands on with individuals in hoarding abatement: helping consumers make choices to slowly remove some items from the home while organizing others in taking steps to restore or maintain a livable environment.
• 24-Hour Assistance- Availability of around the clock call center with staff to help problem solve, provide listening ear, on site assistance, or notify emergency personnel, family or friends if assistance needed.

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In The News

1000 Viewed “My Mother’s Garden”

By Brian Cox, Editor of the Detroit Legal News
 

The following is a review of My Mother’s Garden, a documentary about hoarding, which was shown at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on September 16, 2008. The author is Brian Cox, editor of the Detroit Legal News and husband to program supervisor Dana Leahy. Synod Residential Services owns a copy of the documentary and they would be happy to bring it to any of the sites to do a “showing” for interested staff.

An estimated 700,000 to 1.4 million people in the United States are believed to suffer from a compulsive hoarding disorder. The documentary “My Mother’s Garden” tells the up-close and heartrending story of one—Eugenia Lester.

Directed by Eugenia’s daughter, Cynthia, “My Mother’s Garden” is a deeply personal and brutally honest exploration of Eugenia’s severe hoarding disorder that has profoundly affected her life and the lives of her four children.

In the fall of 2005, Eugenia’s hoarding had made her home uninhabitable, forcing her to sleep outside in the garden. When the home is condemned and scheduled for demolition, Cynthia and her brothers return home to help their mother deal with her disorder. As her children undertake the arduous task of clearing out the house of decades of accumulated junk in order to spare the wrecking ball, Eugenia suffers heart-wrenching distress over the loss.

It took Cynthia and her brothers around eight weeks and some $20,000 to empty the place, but Eugenia’s disorder made her far from grateful for their efforts. When she returned to her home after the cleanup, she collapsed on the floor, weeping and crying out to her children, “I hate you people; you robbed me.” A few weeks later, Eugenia Lester was so depressed and suicidal that she needed emergency care.

The documentary traces Eugenia’s history, revealing how her past shaped her current condition. Born in Poland during the Polish uprising of 1944 and raised by a Holocaust survivor in communist Poland where hoarding was a way of life, Eugenia is overwhelmed by the excess of America’s consumer-driven society.

My Mother’s Garden” fundamentally is the story of a strong, intelligent woman who must undergo a deep metamorphosis to save herself from the depths of mental illness.

The documentary shines light on a much misunderstood disorder that is often shrouded in shame.

Approximately 1,000 people attended the documentary’s state debut Sept. 16 at the Michigan Theater. Synod was a co-sponsor of the showing. At the conclusion of the film, Cynthia Lester joined Dr. Jim Abelson of the University of Michigan Depression Center in a panel discussion and took questions from the audience.

For more information on hoarding issues and assistance you can contact the Hoarding Task of Washtenaw County, of which Synod is a member. The Task Force can be reached by phone at (734)483-9363 ext. 22 or by email at: clutterhelp@ewashtenaw.org

If you missed the review of the documentary and you would like to view the trailer, it can be viewed at: www.seethrough-films.com/mmg/about.html