November 4, 2011
The Arlington Hoarding Task Force and the Jail Diversion Program was featured on Channel 5. You can read the article and view the video here.
May 5, 2011
The Arlington Police Department in partnership with the Arlington Health and Human Services Department has been awarded a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH.) This first ever hoarding grant awarded to a police department in the Commonwealth will support a Hoarding Response Team.
The police department and the health and human services department have experienced a marked increase in the number of residents suffering from compulsive hoarding and acquiring disorders. These individuals increase risks of homelessness, suffering a medical emergency, or self-harm due to inadequate access or coordination of services.
The Arlington Police Department’s Hoarding Response Team will be comprised of a select group of police officers who will partner with the police department’s mental health clinician (also funded under a DMH Grant) and the Arlington Health and Human Services department. Rebecca Wolfe, the police department’s mental health clinician will serve as the single point of contact for town residents, departments, and service agencies.
Officers and the clinician will be trained on use of the Saving Inventory-Revised, the Clutter Image Rating Scale, the Savings Cognitions Inventory and Activities of Daily Living for Hoarding. The Arlington Police will provide the initial response and the clinician will provide on-going follow up with the resident managing the case to its conclusion. Police Chief Fredrick Ryan said, “We are proud to be the first police department in the Commonwealth to have been awarded this grant and it will enable us to provide more sophisticated police services enabling our officers to prevent injury or death to those at risk.”
| 
