Older men in Wales who hoard possessions and neglect their own hygiene, safety, or diet are rarely studied, and social care services often fail to reach them. This project will interview 20 older men, 20 social care professionals, and 20 staff from partner agencies like housing and fire services, and analyse 28 anonymised case records across four Welsh local authorities. The problem is that self-neglect and hoarding are more common among older men than women, yet almost no research examines how masculinity and ageing shape men’s willingness to accept help—or how services respond to them. If this succeeds, the findings will produce practical guidance for social workers, housing officers, and fire crews, plus a short animation and an accessible guide for older men and their families. The goal is to help services adapt their approach so they can engage men earlier, before living conditions become dangerous or force a crisis intervention. This is applied social care research with direct, near-term implications for how local authorities in Wales—and potentially across the UK—deliver support to a vulnerable, often invisible group.
View original technical description
This study explores older men's experiences of self-neglect and hoarding and their engagement with local authority (LA) social care services in Wales. Self-neglect includes neglecting basic needs such as personal hygiene, safety and diet (Owen et al., 2022) and may involve hoarding or obtaining and failing to discard possessions, creating cluttered and often dangerous living spaces (Frost and Hartl, 1996). Associated behaviours with self-neglect and hoarding can severely affect a person's wellbeing and sometimes community wellbeing (Gibbons et al., 2006), thus making them significant societal health and social care problems (Martineau et al., 2021). In relation to gender, self-neglect is more prevalent amongst older men (Yu et al., 2021). However, there is little research on older men s experiences and the intersection of masculinities and ageing in shaping men s engagement with social care support. The study s overarching aim is to identify ways of enhancing support and service engagement for older men experiencing hoarding and self-neglect concurrently (including where hoarding leads to self-neglect concerns) in Wales. Research questions: How do older men (60 + years) experiencing hoarding and self-neglect concurrently engage with social care services? How do gender and masculinities shape social care responses to older men in this group? Our collaborators are four Welsh local authorities (Cardiff, Pembrokeshire, Neath-Port Talbot, Wrexham), Holistic Hoarding (South Wales charity) and Social Care Wales (national social care regulator). We will address the research questions through a multi-method qualitative study across three work packages (WP). WP1 has three arms: 1) interviews with social care professionals (n=20) across four LAs; 2) interviews with partner agencies such as housing welfare officers, environmental health officers and fire services staff (n=20); and 3) thematic analysis of 28 anonymised LA case records of older men experiencing hoarding. WP2 focuses on analysis of older men s experiences of hoarding – this will consist of two-part interviews with 20 older men who will be recruited via the project collaborators and with family members who have supported a male friend/family member. WP3 activity will run across 24-months to encompass public involvement and the supported input of two groups – a public involvement group (including men in mid-to-later life with lived experience of hoarding and people with experience of supporting family members and friends) and a steering group (representatives from collaborators and support agencies, including voluntary and community groups, and mental health services in Wales). Outputs will be mainly practice-focused and co-produced with our public involvement group, steering group and Social Care Wales. They will be evidence summaries, a short animation aimed at practitioners and the public, good practice guidance including pen portraits, and an accessible guide for older men and their supporters. This new evidence will contribute to better professional understanding of the psychosocial pressures experienced by older men and service responses. Findings will inform the adaption of service delivery and interventions to better engage older men and develop more tailored support at earlier points.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know