Our Team
Our Trustees
Megan Karnes
Chair
Counsellor BA (Hons), Dip. Clinical Supervision and Consultancy, Prim. Cert CBT, National Advocacy Qualification, Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA), Relevant Person’s Representative (RPR, MBACP.
After leaving her role running a national charity for who people who experience Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Megan Karnes, Director of HoardingUK, launched a one page website.
Having supported people who hoard, their family/friends and professionals in her nearly five years at that organisation, hoarding stood out as an area of Mental Health in which discriminatory practice was common.
Discriminatory because people who were dealing with hoarding tendencies were getting all the backlash and none of the support.
Integrating Megan Karnes’ fifteen years experience of supporting people with hoarding behaviour, family, friends, neighbours and professionals, HoardingUK is an organisation committed to increasing choice and control for our participants while ensuring the professionals are empowered to provide appropriate and effective interventions.
Heather Matuozzo
Trustee
Heather Matuozzo is a CEO of a Social Enterprise called Clouds End CIC, a professional declutterer, trainer, activist for people who hoard, she also established the Pan London Hoarding Task Force and runs three support groups in the West Midlands.
She founded the Clouds End CIC to work with local authorities and now helps them work with their tenants who might have got into trouble with their belongings. Clouds End also helps to develop multi–agency groups. She has worked in this field since 2007 and thinks it is just ‘the best work there is!’.
Heather has taken part in BBC’s documentaries Britain’s Biggest Hoarders, talks frequently on the radio and is an associate trainer for Capsticks.
Any form of chaos delights me, it is always a challenge. Helping clients find a practical and enjoyable way to manage their things is the aim. Empowering the client – not punishing them. My maternal aunts were hoarders and I spent every weekend with one and loved it, so excessive clutter makes me feel quite at home.”
Satwant Singh
Clinical Director
MSc in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, MSc in Mental Health Interventions, Post Graduate Diploma in CBT Group Approaches. Satwant is a researcher, therapist, trainer, hoarding group facilitator and a co-author Overcoming Hoarding.
Satwant co-facilitates the East Ham Therapeutic Hoarding Support Group which was the first group of its kind in the UK. He is regularly invited to speak and lecture across the UK and internationally.
Michelle Murray Esq
Legal Advisor
Esq Ba, PGDip Law, MA, Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA), Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA). Michelle, Barrister-at-Law, works with the Royal Borough of Kingston as a Senior Commissioner in Adults Social Care. Previously, she was an inspector at the Care Quality Commission. She was also part of the Winterbourne Joint Improvement Programme.
She is presently a Governor for the Camden and Islington Foundation Trust.
Carole Murray
Mental Health Awareness Advisor
Carole is a Mental Health activist. She has worked with HoardingUK since its inception.
Carole is also a Trustee of two other mental health charities, CAPITAL Project Trust, in W.Sussex and Together for Mental Wellbeing, where she is also a member of the National Service User Steering Group.
Sharon Degen
Wellbeing Advisor
Sharon has been a part of HoardingUK since its inception.
Sharon Degen runs Archway Pilates. She started training in 2001 and now holds a Diploma in Anatomy and Physiology, and is a qualified Body Control Matwork Teacher.
Our Staff
Megan Karnes
Founder/Director/Chair
Counsellor BA (Hons), Dip. Clinical Supervision and Consultancy, Prim. Cert CBT, National Advocacy Qualification, Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA), Relevant Person’s Representative (RPR, MBACP.
After leaving her role running a national charity for who people who experience Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Megan Karnes, Director of HoardingUK, launched a one page website.
Having supported people who hoard, their family/friends and professionals in her nearly five years at that organisation, hoarding stood out as an area of Mental Health in which discriminatory practice was common.
Discriminatory because people who were dealing with hoarding tendencies were getting all the backlash and none of the support.
Integrating Megan Karnes’ fifteen years experience of supporting people with hoarding behaviour, family, friends, neighbours and professionals, HoardingUK is an organisation committed to increasing choice and control for our participants while ensuring the professionals are empowered to provide appropriate and effective interventions.
Dr Gianetta Rands
Medical Advisor
Dr Rands worked in Camden and Islington NHS Trust as a Consultant Psychiatrist and has honorary contracts with the University College London Department of Mental Health Sciences and the Whittington Hospital. She specializes is cognitive impairment due to dementias and delirium, mental capacity assessments and management, and the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illnesses presenting in older people. Throughout her career she has had major roles in postgraduate training, as Membership examiner, and on several Committees of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
support staff
In-Home & Telephone Support Services
Susha Eng
Counselling Services Manager and Therapeutic Counsellor
As a three year old, Susha’s ambition was to be a clinical pharmacist which she successfully achieved. After leaving the profession behind, she worked in social media to self-fund her second degree in languages, as well as her counselling training. Now a counsellor in private practice, she brings her skills and experience into working with HoardingUK.
Shamiso Mazaiwana
Telephone Helpline and Therapeutic Services Manager
Dip Integrative Therapeutic Counselling (MBACP), MSc Psychology (MBPsS), MSc Psychology of Mental Health, BA (Hons) Creative Writing.
Shami first began working with HoardingUK as a trainee counsellor in 2018. As a counsellor, she is experienced in working with a range of mental health challenges including anxiety, depression, OCD, hoarding, bereavement, bi-polar I & II, suicidality and post-natal depression. She continues to work in private practice providing telephone and Skype counselling.
On qualifying she has continued working with us and joined HUK as the Telephone Helpline and Therapeutic Services Manager. She brings skills and experience of working with both primary and secondary mental health services supporting individuals with moderate to severe mental health disorders who are experiencing chronic and acute mental health crises. Additionally, she has experience of supporting individuals following mental health in-patient stays as they return home. As such, she has a vast range of experience liaising with crisis resolution and home treatment teams, personality disorder units, recovery and re-ablement teams, social workers, care coordinators and psychiatrists as part of a multi-disciplinary team. In her role as Telephone Helpline Manager she coordinates the telephone helpline program, providing mid-length support for individuals that centres around challenges with hoarding behaviours, acquisition and discarding. In her role as Therapeutic Services Manager she coordinates the triage service providing information, resources, referrals and signposting professionals and participants for hoarding support services across the UK.
As a researcher, her interests are in the experiences of BAME within mental health services. Her aim is to facilitate broadening the exploration and application of cross-cultural understanding within psychology and mental health services.
Advocacy staff
Advocacy Services
Ron Aitken
Advocacy Services Manager
On Introducing myself as HUK’s new Advocacy Services Manager, I’m really excited to be working with Megan and the rest of the team. For the last eight years, I have worked in North London as a Care Act Independent Advocate, covering individuals and their carers across learning difficulty, mental health, dementia and brain injury categories. Before that I was a local Councillor, and worked in Parliament for 10 years doing research and casework, including a stint in Northern Ireland.
More people now need HUK to help them than ever before, because the Grenfell fire has made local authorities and landlords more concerned about the risk of fire in the properties they let. There is also a blame culture about hoarding with all the departments of the state coming down hard without analyzing why the situation arose or how the person can be helped.
Hoarding disorder is currently viewed as a lifestyle choice, not an illness caused by complex trauma or separation. Everyone who is singled out by landlords or the NHS is entitled by law to an independent, qualified advocate, and appropriate support to maintain their physical and mental health. An advocate can ensure that talking therapies and practical support are tailored to meet individual needs rather than imposed solutions from prejudiced professionals.
Please contact me if you have any issues you would like to discuss.
Training staff
Training Services
Julie Wilson
Housing Support & Trainer
Julie works directly with people with hoarding behaviour providing practical help and support in a person centred way.
Julie is passionate about raising awareness of Hoarding and the challenges it brings. After the success of the first ever Hoarding Awareness Week started by Chief Fire Officer’s Association (CFOA) in 2014 Julie decided to start this initiative again. Julie led on behalf of Pan London Hoarding Taskforce (PLHT) and began spreading the word around the country. The week grew in 2017 and is now planned as an annual event for 3rd week in May every year.
Julie has been providing Hoarding training for internal staff at Optivo Housing and contractors since 2014 and has also presented at Housemark’s Tenancy Sustainability and Anti-social Behaviour Clubs as well as to Fire And Rescue Services.
Lee Markwick
Safety Officer Trainer
Lee, a retired Fire Officer and NHS Mental Health & Safety Officer, has a very pragmatic approach to challenging the perception, and managing the risk of hoarding and clutter. He has worked with many Partner Agencies on making people safer inside and outside their homes.
Lee has worked for the following services: Fire, Police & Ambulance Services, Adult & Children Safeguarding Boards, Social Services, Local Council & Housing Authorities, Community Safety Partnerships, Local Authority Hoarding/Clutter Panels, Local Authority & NHS Mental Health Teams, Professional/Multi-Agency/Disciplinary meetings, Care Providers, Environmental Health, J9 Domestic Abuse, Befriending Services, Careline Providers, Private Home Physio Companies, District Nurses, Crimestoppers, Occupational Therapy Assessment Services, Rapid Response Assessment Teams, Victim Support, Lone Worker Devices Companies, Keep Safe/Well Homes Safe Schemes, Anti-Social Behaviour Teams, Strategic Independent Advisory Group, Strategic Hate Crime Panel, Falls Prevention Service, Neighbourhood Watch, Troubled Families, Family Mosaic, Older Adults Health & Wellbeing Services, Home Oxygen/Respiratory Teams, Frailty Groups, Community Patient Forums, Community Agents, Local Area Coordinators, Psychological Therapy Services and Recovery College and Heart Failure Nurses.
Gratefully funded by
