Severe Domestic Squalor

Should you intervene in the life of the 48-year-old woman whose dwelling is stuffed with accumulated rubbish and who will not let anyone help get rid of it - or the 78-year-old surrounded by putrescent food and filth - or the 'animal accumulator'? Cases of severe domestic squalor (sometimes called Diogenes Syndrome) are among the most complex and difficult faced by community agencies. Local counci...