Article archive / September 1, 2010
Originally published: . Volume 2, No. 1. Source pages: 1, 6.
Dr. Suzanne Chabaud will appear in the season premier of A&E’s captivating series Hoarders, airing on Labor Day, September 6th at 9:00 pm central time on A&E. This will be Suzanne’s 11th filmed episode. A licensed clinical psychologist in New Orleans, she consults with the show’s producers to help hoarders while giving viewers an inside look at the lives of those struggling with Compulsive Hoarding Disorder.
In this year’s season premier Suzanne will be working with Sir Patrick, whose fanciful Camelot is hoarded with "treasures." Two weeks later Dr. Chabaud will appear in another episode with a hoarder named Vula, who “…is an extreme or severe compulsive hoarder, whose home was toxic,” Suzanne told the Times. “She hoards every kind of thing imaginable, including cats- Maine Coons, who eliminated all over her terrain of stuff."
The series helps viewers understand how this disorder !affects “…virtually every psychological, sensory and
perceptual process, and frequently the physical health of people who live in hoarded homes,” Suzanne explained. “It affects the development of children and the entire health of families. It affects neighbors who often fear the effects of a hoarded home that threaten their property safety and value. It can! also require costly interventions by code enforcement, child protection, humane societies, fire fighters, and so on.”
Suzanne noted the episode with Vula reveals "the far reaches of this disorder into a community, a disorder that would seem so private and personal.”
While Suzanne experiences the joys of hoarders on the show who make progress, she noted that it is always sad when those, who have received intensive help during the filming and offered aftercare with therapists and organizers, fall back into destructive patterns. She said, “Anyone who has worked with this disorder knows that, even with optimal interventions, progress is tenuous.”!
“What is rewarding for me,” Suzanne
said, “is the increase in people seeking help for compulsive hoarding. Destigmatization of this mystifying !disorder !is encouraging. More people are getting help.”
Dr. Chabaud has opened! “The Gate,” a treatment and research facility! in a large historic home on Dante Street in New Orleans. This effort is part of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Institute of Greater New Orleans, where she and colleague Tim Kershenstine, Ph.D., treat OCD and hoarding through outpatient treatment, intensive day treatment and! educational client-groups. They will soon be offering professional workshops.
“One objective of the institute,” she explained, “is to destigmatize the disorders of OCD and compulsive hoarding by providing services and education for the public and professionals.” They are excited she said, “…to create an openness in the community about two disorders that sufferers rarely speak about.”
Since Suzanne began her extensive work with A&E, she has learned first hand about hoarding. “At the base of my home's attic stairs,” she said, “I have watched piles of one year of decorations, off- season clothing and a sundry of stuff accumulate. The good news is that my Halloween decorations are ready for installation again, that is, if I can separate them from the hurricane readiness supplies.”
Dr. Chabaud can be contacted directly at schabaud@msn.com.
One of the most popular stories of the past year was Dr. Suzanne Chabaud’s work on the A&E series Hoarders. Above she wears a mask at a hoarder’s home. Dr. Chabaud will appear in the Season Premier this Labor Day, on A&E at 8:00 pm Central. See full story page six. Photo courtesy of A&E.
Sir Patrick and Dr. Suzanne Chabaud on Season Premier of Hoarders, Labor Day.
Photo courtesy of A&E.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.