Collaboration with Outside Researchers.

NSGCD has collaborated with two academic researchers. Each of these researchers worked within an accredited university and met our criteria for collaboration (see Policy, below).

Monika Eckfield Petross, RN, MSN, is a doctoral student at the University of California at San Francisco School of Nursing. For a pilot study exploring the experience of elderly individuals with hoarding and cluttering behaviors, NSGCD asked subscribers to distribute a brochure to their CD clients and encourage them to participate in the pilot study.

Preliminary findings generated from this pilot study will be used to plan a larger research study. The preliminary findings included:

• All participants in the study struggled with decision making.
• A variety of reasons for decision-making difficulties were given by participants, including a fear of making mistakes, inability to prioritize, the struggle between emotional attachment and logical decisions, and others.

Sharon Mintz, MS, is a doctoral student at Fordham University. For a study in the development of a Chronic Disorganization Inventory, NSGCD placed a link on our web site to a survey measuring the extent and type of chronic disorganization, and sent an email to all NSGCD subscribers asking them to encourage their CD clients to take the on-line survey.

Preliminary results indicate that the 60-item Chronic Disorganization Inventory is a psychometrically sound instrument that can be used to assess the level and subtypes of chronic disorganization. After further analysis the tool will be made available to professional organizers.

 

NSGCD Policy for Collaboration with Outside Researchers

From time to time, NSGCD receives requests for help from researchers, and NSGCD desires to collaborate in appropriate research conducted by qualified scientists. To allow NSGCD to collaborate with researchers in appropriate fields of study, to protect NSGCD, its subscribers and their clients and to provide a reasonable, concrete procedure that is easily communicated to those who contact us for help in their research, the following is NSGCD policy:

Researchers desiring to collaborate with NSGCD who are associated with an accredited university will provide the Research Director with the following: (1) a letter from the Institutional Review Board of the accredited university approving the research, (2) an outline of the research protocol including any survey questionnaires, (3) agreement that NSGCD will be acknowledged for our contribution in any published or unpublished report of the research, (4) any other documentation required by the Research Director to determine the appropriateness of the collaboration, (5) an explanation of the role NSGCD is expected to play, and (6) the benefits that NSGCD could expect from this collaboration. Following the receipt of all of the above documentation, the Board of Directors will consider the request based on the recommendation of the Research Director. A majority vote of the NSGCD Board of Directors will be required for NSGCD to collaborate in any research conducted within an accredited university.

Researchers desiring to collaborate with NSGCD who are not associated with an accredited university but who are associated with a 501(c)3 nonprofit will provide the Research Director with the following: (1) a letter from an independent Institutional Review Board approving the research, (2) an outline of the research protocol including any survey questionnaires, (3) agreement that NSGCD will be acknowledged for our contribution in any published or unpublished report of the research, (4) any other documentation required by the Research Director to determine the appropriateness of the collaboration, (5) an explanation of the role NSGCD is expected to play, and (6) the benefits that NSGCD could expect from this collaboration. Following the receipt of all of the above documentation, the Board of Directors will consider the request based on the recommendation of the Research Director. Unanimous approval of the NSGCD Board of Directors will be required for NSGCD to collaborate in any research not conducted within an accredited university.

 

NSGCD Research

Two surveys are being developed within the organization. NSGCD subscribers Kit Anderson, Catherine Roster and Linda Durham are involved.

Kit Anderson, CPO-CD, is the principle investigator in a study of the frequency of use of the organizing techniques originally proposed for CD clients by Judith Kolberg in What Every Organizer Should Know About Chronic Disorganization. The study seeks to determine which of these techniques are most often used by NSGCD subscribers and by other professional organizers. Results of the study should be available by the end of 2007.

Catherine Roster, Ph. D., Assistant Professor, the University of New Mexico, is the principle investigator in a proposed survey of chronically disorganized individuals that would compare various assessment tools used by psychologists, professional organizers and consumer behaviorists to measure hoarding behaviors. This proposed survey is in the initial stage of development.

NSGCD subscribers with an interest in conducting research may contact the Research Director.