The National Squalor Conference is the first international conference of its kind and is being held in Sydney tomorrow. Focusing on addressing the community impacts of social isolation, poverty, accommodation problems and mental health, disability and aged care issues, it looks to move beyond ‘blaming’ people for their situation and instead offer support to the most vulnerable in the community.
Featuring speakers from legal, health care and psychiatric backgrounds it deals extensively with the issues surrounding hoarding and hoarding treatments and the cost to the individual, their family and any animals that may be involved.
Squalor and hoarding: a secret epidemic in the spotlight
The first National Squalor Conference, being held in Sydney this week, aims to highlight the growing number of people living in squalor in Australia. The conference will examine the links between squalor, hoarding, mental health issues and social isolation.
Confronting statistics collected by a number of agencies in relation to people living with compulsive hoarding and severe domestic squalor, emphasise the number of Australians living in squalor is far greater than previously thought. Over 1 in 1,000 elderly people are thought to live in severe domestic squalor and of course it doesn’t just affect the elderly.
……..RSPCA NSW estimates that there are approximately 700 animal hoarders in NSW, owning an average of 30 animals each. There are potentially around 20,000 animals in the hands of animal hoarders in NSW alone. And the RSPCA sees approximately 200 new cases every year.
“Animal hoarding results in extreme suffering, affecting large numbers of animals for prolonged periods. The extent of abuse, neglect and social deprivation is such that euthanasia is often the only practical option for many of the animals rescued from these situations,” says RSPCA NSW CEO Steve Coleman.
“Last year over 130 small dogs were seized from a property in the south of the state. Large seizures like this place enormous emotional and financial strain on the RSPCA.”
Media Release
… and…
The Government provided $375,000 in funding for the pilot project following a study by Professor John Snowdon from the University of Sydney. The study found at least one in 1000 elderly NSW people are living in severe domestic squalor – twice as many as previously believed.
New data from the pilot project shows the issue of squalor is not just related to the elderly. Referrals have been made for people aged from 28 to 94 years, so the issue may be much greater than originally considered.
Mr Lynch said the project was addressing a complex and hidden social problem.
“This project is bringing hope to some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged people in our communities,” he said.
Mr Lynch said most people living in squalor were reclusive and had little contact with their families, friends or neighbours.
“The 200 referrals to date have poured in from all areas of the community, from both private and public housing,” he said.
“Significantly, all socio-economic groups are represented across the squalor client base and all cases referred present a high degree of complexity,” Mr Lynch said.
Media Release
As animal welfare advocates, we love to find someone to blame when society fails to protect animals. That’s why we’re so in love with the idea of compulsory cat desexing, in the face of studies which show 9 out of 10 people already desex their cats.
But when we’re rallying to bring in a law to make people be ‘more responsible’, we need to think seriously about who we’re really targeting. Often the last 10% of people, the outliers to social norms, aren’t irresponsible or evil, but simply disadvantaged and in need of help.
New laws don’t help these owners, or their animals. Sure, punishment feels nice and when it comes down to it, getting a law is easy. However, if we’re truly working for the benefit of animals, we need to dig a little deeper, see where the problem really lays and recognise that supporting people to do the right thing, is always going to be more effective than punishing them for doing the wrong one.
