Stigmatizing attitudes and endorsement of coercive interventions for hoarding

Hoarding disorder is a stigmatized condition, but little research has examined the attitudes of professional service providers who encounter hoarding in homes they enter as part of their work. These providers have essential roles in identifying and intervening with hoarding, but the degree to which they hold stigmatizing attitudes has not been studied. Using an online questionnaire, the present study sought to compare hoarding service providers with non-professionals along several dimensions of hoarding stigma: blame, desire for social distance, stereotypes about incompetence, and the endorsement of coercive treatment methods were examined. Overall, members of the professional sample endorsed less blame and desire for social distance from hoarding clients. However, the samples did not differ in beliefs about the incompetence of hoarding clients or endorsement of coercive methods in hoarding interventions. Stigmatizing attitudes about mental illness in general consistently predicted hoarding stigma in both samples. Providers who expressed more professional confidence in working with hoarding endorsed less blaming attitudes and less desire for social distance, but providers who work in more enforcement-oriented roles endorsed desire for more social distance from hoarding clients. This study provides a first glimpse at hoarding-related stigma among professional service providers, and further insight into the general public’s perception of hoarding relative to other mental illnesses. Findings about the predictors of hoarding stigma provide potential directions for anti-stigma interventions. • Hoarding service providers endorse less blame stigma about hoarding • Stigma about other mental illnesses predicts hoarding stigma • Professional confidence predicts less client blame but also a preference for less social contact • Enforcement-based hoarding service providers show more social distance stigma