Rosemary Bakker, MS, Project Director, and Randy Frost, PhD, of Smith University

As our population ages, "hoarding" has been increasingly recognized as an important and potentially troublesome psychiatric symptom that can threaten the health, safety, and dignity of older New Yorkers. Weill Cornell's Aging Center has created a unique multidisciplinary team to try to understand why these behaviors occur and how they can be addressed.

On January 27, 2003, the New York City Hoarding Task Force held its first meeting here at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Rosemary Bakker, Research Associate in Gerontologic Design in Medicine, Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, organized a 30-member Task Force to examine the complex issue of hoarding in the older population. Randy Frost, PhD, clinical psychologist at Smith University and national expert on the topic, is a consultant to the Task Force.

Task Force members come from various backgrounds and organizations, including Adult Protective Services, Alzheimer's Association, Animal Control, Building Department, Community Service Agencies, Elder Abuse, Fire Department, Supreme Court, Landlord Associations, Tenant Associations, Visiting Nurses Services and the Weill Medical College of Cornell. Dr. Robert Abrams and Risa Breckman, CSW, both from the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology, are also members of the Task Force.

For more information, please visit our Resource Center at Cornellaging.org/gem