How Home And Life Organizers works with special circumstances. Across the nation and in local communities, on the street and inside individual homes, you will find someone’s parent, sibling or child, struggling with a substance dependency to a narcotic. Occasionally, a substance dependency will develop into a full-blown addiction, taking its toll on the individual and their surroundings. In conditions like these, we at Home and Life Organizers (HALO) are called in to help with deep cleaning homes after a substance dependency intervention.

Making homes safe from communicable diseases and drug paraphernalia associated with addiction is part of what we do. Having an educational background in mental health and addictions, we offer this service to the community of Waterloo Region with compassion and understanding. In today’s blog post, we are going to discuss substance dependency, and how addiction can cause neglect in the home. We will also touch on how difficult it can be when a family member steps in to help their loved one.

This is our featured story on one young man and his family.

Substance Dependency

We will start first with defining the difference between a substance dependency and addiction. A simple definition of substance dependency is when someone takes a certain medication or substance, and their body becomes physically dependant on that substance. Caffeine is one form of substance dependency, more extreme examples would be nicotine, alcohol, and pain management narcotics like opioids. At times, people are prescribed pain management medication, and become physically dependent.

When someone becomes physically dependent, it can be difficult to stop taking the medication, and at times, that dependency can develop into a full-blown addiction. In addiction, behaviours change, perceptions become altered, and the drug of choice becomes the primary focus for the individual. In this process, simple acts such as self care and taking care of the home can lose priority, along with other day to day tasks that used to be manageable.

Our Client

In our client’s case, one young man was struggling with this type of addiction, along with concurrent health problems. This had gone on for a considerable period, and the family decided to intervene.

It is difficult enough to see a loved one suffer in any setting. As the family stepped in, what soon became obvious was just how the young man’s living arrangements had become. While there were medical and addiction issues that needed to be addressed by getting the young man to a treatment facility, the clean up of the apartment was another story.

The family contacted us here at Home and Life Organizers, and we were glad to help. At HALO, we have a great deal of experience in helping others through difficult situations such as these, and we were able to bring comfort to a difficult circumstance.

In this state, the young man’s home had become unmanageable from years of neglect. We faced communicable diseases, drug paraphernalia and animal feces throughout the home.

We started by getting rid of all waste, organizing the young mans belongings, while thoroughly disinfecting the home every step of the way. With the drug paraphernalia that was found, we cautiously used best practices in handling paraphernalia of this nature, and safely disposed of all dangerous items within accordance to municipal standards. We approached every aspect of the young man’s home with a thorough deep cleaning, taking care to disinfect every crevice of the home along the way. We made the home safe space for our client.  

We are extremely proud to say that the young man in question was able to return home with his pets, well on the road to recovery. The house was clean and comfortable, providing a stable environment for the young man’s recovery. A clean, organized home can add quality to life, and that is our goal.

When contracting a home deep cleaning service, it is important to consider the approach and experience of the staff in question. With Home and Life Organizers, we approach everything with love, compassion and understanding. Our staff is trained and prepared to face difficult and uncomfortable circumstances. We were able to bring ease and comfort to what could be considered a heartbreaking and embarrassing situation.

For residents of Waterloo & Wellington Region, If you are struggling with addictions, mental health or are in crisis, get in touch with HERE247. If you know someone who may need help, ask them to get in touch. Here247 is a program designed to help people bridge the gap from active addiction to treatment services.

About HALO

Home and Life Organizers is a boutique deep cleaning agency that specializes in stepping in when needed to help families and individuals. Doing work across the region for several community organizations, HALO has the skills and resources for almost any difficult scenario. HALO is here to help. Whether it is general cleanup, deep cleaning for COVID-19 or special needs jobs, we are here for you. VIsit our page, What We Do, to have a better understanding of how we operate.