As the saying goes: Your home is your castle. You live in it, relax in it, socialise in it and feel safe in it. When one of those needs are no longer being met, this can impact all aspects of a person’s mental and physical well-being. We all have a different tipping point as to when managing our homes may become too daunting and overwhelming. This is why it is so important to be vigilant to support those who are most at risk from the debilitating weight of Home Acopia. Home Acopia is the inability to cope with one’s daily living tasks at home.

The ability to handle life’s challenges and the experiences we have in life manifests in how we manage our home. This is why managing our Castle is so special and unique. We do not know if someone’s ability to manage their home is under stress, we also do not know when their stress levels become overwhelming and hit a tipping point leading to Acopia. For example; a person who has a well-defined sense of cleanliness who suffers a significant trauma may be than a person suffering severe depression.

A Castle represents the ability to let people in, as well as the walls to keep people out.

Some key behavioural signals you can look for include:

• Does the participant want to do more outings? Great right?!
• Is a little wall emerging? Does the participant have their support workers running more errands than in the past? Fewer people being let in?
• A shift in anxiety levels, due to trying to deal with a new event?
• Has there been a family event recently that may have triggered feelings of judgement, shame, trauma?
• An increase in self-awareness? Have there been recent conversations where someone has been judgemental and that has been upsetting? Further reason to fear going out or having someone come in

If you’d like to discuss more strategies to broach the issue with your clients or participants please feel free to get in touch with our team who are happy to share their experiences with you.