Christiana Bratiotis is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where she teaches social work practice classes across the bachelor’s and master’s programs and supervises social work doctoral students. She serves as Faculty Chair of the PhD program and currently leads a comprehensive curriculum renewal process. She pioneered work in the formation and operation of multi-disciplinary community hoarding task forces, which is highlighted in her book titled, “The Hoarding Handbook: A Guide for Human Service Professionals” published by Oxford University Press. She is the leading global authority on implementing community-based interventions for hoarding and her current research interests center on hoarding treatment and intervention efforts in the context of affordable housing and community-based organizations.

Throughout her academic career, Dr. Bratiotis has also taught courses in social welfare, mental health policy and social analysis. In addition to her scholarly work, she supervises students who provide clinical treatment and she offers national and international consultation on hoarding behaviour to families and communities.

In 2017 Christiana took advantage of an opportunity to relocate to Vancouver and became an affiliated faculty with the UBC Centre for Collaborative Research on Hoarding where she conducts cross-disciplinary research and co-supervises clinical psychology students.

She has given more than 200 invited community lectures, keynote addresses, agency clinical trainings and academic presentations around the world. In 2011, Christiana developed the HOMES Multi-disciplinary Hoarding Risk Assessment which has been translated into six languages and is a tool used by communities to assess risk and guide hoarding interventions.

Dr. Bratiotis earned her Bachelor of Arts in Social Psychology and Masters of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Nevada, Reno. She completed a one year post-MSW fellowship at the Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center. Christiana served as executive director for two non-profit organizations and has more than 23 years of experience working in and with communities to build capacity and address issues of diversity and social justice.

Her work has been highlighted by media outlets including the Canadian Press, The Vancouver Sun, the New York Times, Boston Globe and the Chicago Tribune.

In 2014, Christiana received the Tenancy Assistance Program Individual Award from Boston’s MassHousing and in 2010, she was recognized with an Excellence in Teaching Award by Boston University. She consistently achieves exceptionally high teaching evaluations and in her words, “is honoured to contribute to the development of emerging social work practitioners and behavioural health interventionists.”

Selected Publications

Bratiotis, C., Steketee, G., Dohn, J., Calderone, Frost, R.O,, & Tolin, D.F. (2019) Should I keep it? Thoughts verbalized during a discarding task. Cognitive Therapy and Research. doi 10.1007/s10608-019-10025-y

Dozier, M. E., Bratiotis, C., Broadnax, D., Le, J., & Ayer, C. R. (2019). A description of 17 animal hoarding case files from Animal Control and the Humane Society. Psychiatry Research, 272, 365-368. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.127

Luu, M., Lauster, N., Bratiotis, C., Edsell-Vetter, J., & Woody, S. R. (2018). Squalor in community-referred hoarded homes. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 19, 66-71. doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2018.08.005

Bratiotis, C., Woody, S., & Lauster, N. (2018).  Coordinated community-based hoarding interventions: Evidence of case management practices. Families in Society, 99(4), 1-13. doi: 10.1177/1044389418802450https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894188024. 

Kwok, N., Bratiotis, C., Luu, M., Lauster, N., Kysow, K., Woody, S.R. (2017). Examining the role of fire prevention on hoarding response teams: Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services as a case study. Fire Technology, 54, 57-73. doi: 0.1007/s10694-017-0672-0   (40% contribution; writing, data collection, student supervision)

Bratiotis, C., Davidow, J., Glossner, K. & Steketee, G. (2016). Requests for help with hoarding: Who needs what from whom? Practice Innovations, 1(1), 82-88.

Bratiotis, C. (2013). Community hoarding task forces: A comparative case study of five task forces in the United States. Health and Social Care in the Community, 21(3), 245-253.

Bratiotis, C., Steketee, G., Davidow, J., Samuels, J., Tolin, D., & Frost, R.O. (2013). Use of services by people who hoard objects.  Best Practices in Mental Health, 9(2), 39-51.

Bratiotis, C., Steketee, G., & Sorrentino, C. (2011). The hoarding handbook: A guide for human service professionals. New York: Oxford.

Areas of Scholarship: hoarding, multi-disciplinary community-based interventions

Areas of Practice: cognitive behavioural therapy, evidence-based practices, clinical treatment

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