B.O.T.S. Training has a new protocol during the pandemic. Desks are placed 6 feet apart for safe distancing while in training. Pictured here are our new offices suited up and ready to do a mock scene.
Join us in welcoming three new California offices (Poway, Pasadena, and Temecula) and certified technicians for Houston South, Reno, Akron and Gwinnett County. Welcome aboard!
Exciting News! All of our Arizona offices have banded together to create a Bio-One Law Enforcement Grant in their state. Each Arizona office is contributing towards the grant and expenses associated with it. They'll be awarding a $5,000 Grant to a local, law enforcement agency. We love when our offices combine forces for a great cause! Help first, business second is what we are all about at Bio-One!
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
April 19-25th, 2020 is National Crime Victim's Rights Week!
Bio-One has the opportunity to help people after an unfortunate event, but we understand the pain of survivors is a long and ongoing process. We operate by the motto: help first, business second and we believe a community support system is such a great way to help those around you.
If you know someone who has personally been affected by crime, please take this week to reach out to them. Send flowers, a card, have a conversation or coffee with them and let them know they are loved and supported.
Gary Maxey in Savannah recently cleaned homeless veteran's tiny homes. This is part of a tiny house project in Savannah, Georgia where tiny homes are provided for homeless veterans either permenantly or as a transitional place. At Bio-One, we are honored to be a part of causes like this. We are here to help and love when we can help make a difference.
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
Welcome to our last month's B.O.T.s training crew! Bio-One is proud to announce a new Atlantic City location as well as technicians from Dayton, Huntsville, and Tampa getting certified! Great job to our new franchise and technicians!
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
Matt and Krista Gregg from Bio-One of Asheville have taken the time to make some goodie boxes for their local police department and crisis advocates! These look delicious and are a great way to create relationships and show your support.
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
Huge thank you to Cheryl Chiasson for sharing your knowledge and giving a couple of owners an opportunity to experience a hoarding job while in Denver! We love when trainees go out on job scenes and have the opportunity to chat with local offices!
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
Bio-One welcomes three new franchises this November! Coming aboard we have Bio-One Goodyear, Bio-One Eugene, and Bio-One Gwinnett County! Congratulations everyone on becoming a new franchise! We hope you enjoyed training, go out there and help first!
If you know of someone in need of our services, please take a look at our locations to find the nearest Bio-One office near you. Stay safe!
We often forget about the people left behind in the wake of a homicide. News stories reveal who died but often fail to identify how their death impacts their loved ones. When someone is murdered, their family, friends and significant others endure one of the most traumatic experiences that anyone can face. These survivors are some of the least researched crime victims in America, and they are everywhere. According to the most recent FBI data, 16,214 Americans were murdered in 2018. For every one of those individuals an average of 7 to 10 relatives were severely impacted, according to an estimate by Lu Redmond, a homicide grief expert.
If the murder rate remains consistent, Redmond’s estimate means between 113,000 and 162,000 Americans will become homicide survivors each year. That’s in addition to the pool of survivors who already lost loved ones in previous years. Though the lack of research makes it impossible to quantify how many total homicide survivors there are in America, the number is high enough to warrant concern for how they are treated by health professionals.
For survivors, the grieving process is almost impossible to endure. Though loved ones will grieve in different ways depending on their relationship with the victim, the loss is shocking, unimaginable and absolute. They never had a chance to say goodbye to their loved one, and the plans they both shared will never come to fruition. This realization may be sudden. In some cases, it may take years. Some survivors find it difficult to accept a loved one’s death at first, resulting in a delayed reaction that is triggered by a situation that reminds them of the victim. According to the National Center of Victims of Crime, grief symptoms include shock, disbelief, numbness, changes in appetite and sleeping patterns, difficulty concentrating, anger, confusion, increased anxiety and fear. Financial loss, depression and family conflict are also common symptoms.
Discovering a murdered loved one in the home can trigger post traumatic stress disorder. After the first responders leave the scene, some survivors may feel compelled to clean up the aftermath themselves. Confused that the paramedics don’t complete this work, they may think the cleanup process is their responsibility and act immediately. After all, they want to restore the scene as quickly as possible. Operating in a state of shock, they’ll remove the blood stains, body tissue and contaminated materials from the home without recognizing the threat to their physical and mental health. In addition to exposing their body to dangerous bloodborne pathogens, survivors may experience traumatic flashbacks of the experience in the future and suffer from heightened anxiety and emotional numbness. These PTSD symptoms prolong the recovery process, making it even more difficult for survivors to cope with their new lives.
Bio-One works with communities across the nation to avoid this outcome. We employ certified technicians that respond to scenes of violent crime and clean up dangerous biohazards that pose a threat to you and your family. When we receive a request for our services, we’ll send a team to the job site within an hour to assess your situation and perform a comprehensive cleaning solution that restores the property. Our powerful, environmentally friendly chemicals eradicate harmful pathogens that spread Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV, giving you assurance that you will be safe long after the area is decontaminated. We’ll dispose of the infected materials that cannot be salvaged and replace flooring and other furnishings if we need to. Once the area is thoroughly cleaned, we’ll return it to its pre-incident state so you can focus on recovering.
We conduct this work because we want to help people who have been left to deal with a difficult, painful task. That’s why our company motto is “Help first, business second.” We don’t ask for payment until after the job is complete because we want to remove the safety threat from your home as quickly as you do. Every person on our team will arrive on-site with an understanding of the trauma you are going through and a respect for your privacy and personal needs. Contact your local Bio-One office today and we’ll immediately connect you with a representative that can assist you. We are available 24/7/365.
Although eight years have passed since the world’s top mental health experts classified hoarding as a unique compulsive disorder, the problem persists throughout the country. Researchers say that up to 20 million Americans suffer from this illness, which is described as an obsessive tendency to accumulate troves of objects with no practical value.Because hoarding is historically stigmatized and underdiagnosed, this number is likely a conservative estimate. Even more troubling, hoarding is expected to increase as the population ages and mortality rates rise. But the studies that dole out these numbers understandably focus on hoarders over other stakeholders in the community. Hoarders’ actions impact far more people than reflected in the data. Fires and collapsing structures caused by unstable hoarding situations jeopardize the safety of neighbors and government workers. Even animals suffer. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, a quarter of a million animals are hoarded each year. But the people afflicted by the disorder’s worst consequences often live in the same household as the hoarder.
Families deteriorate as high levels of dysfunction, increased conflict and financial uncertainty hinder intimacy and devastate the emotional wellbeing of everyone in the home. Objects overwhelm the space and are guarded zealously by hoarders who are pathologically unable to discard anything they deem valuable. Hoarded items commonly include old newspapers, rotting food, cardboard boxes, pets, excessive piles of clothes and furniture that dominates the home. Space becomes constricted and practically unlivable, prompting hoarders to carve narrow passageways out of the clutter to navigate between rooms.
But despite the extreme measures’ hoarders take to endure these living conditions, the situation cannot be controlled. There is no space for shared activities among the family and no room to use necessary facilities like ovens, showers and beds. In fact, the concept of “space” alters entirely. Children may have to sleep on couches in the living room or in bed with parents to circumvent the clutter. Activities like eating, reading and sleeping are subject to the limitations of space and the normalcy of disorder.
The effect of living like this leads to feelings of isolation, depression and vulnerability. Confounded by the fact that the hoarding family member is usually controlling, stubborn and sensitive to criticism, other people in the home often feel undervalued and powerless. Any attempts to remove the clutter are met with fierce opposition and outrage by the hoarder, who suffers from severe distress when confronted with the notion of losing their valuables. Aware of these consequences, the family usually lives in isolation, refusing to invite friends and relatives over to the home out of embarrassment. These claustrophobic conditions extend to the mind, which is overwhelmed by feelings of frustration, helplessness and anxiety. Financial strains ensue as the hoarder spends money on items that have no discernable value to other family members. As the acquisition of objects greatly outweighs the removal of other objects, credit limits are reached and space disappears, leading to home maintenance fees, financial debt and increasingly frequent family altercations.
Onlooking children often find themselves torn between parents in these situations. Child protective services may be invoked at some point, breaking up the family and degrading the bond between child and parent even further. This possibility weighs heavily on the minds of older children, who often feel compelled to silence for fear that they will be relocated by the authorities. Child protective services are often justified in removing them from the home. Households governed by an extreme hoarder are vulnerable to disease, air pollutants, pests and fires. Children in these homes also face stunted social and cognitive growth as they endure harsh living conditions and parental strife. Moreover, research indicates that hoarding behaviors are learned and adopted by the children of hoarders, who may subsequently pass these tendencies down to their own kids.
The strains that hoarding places on families illustrates why reaching out for help is so important. If you or a loved one are affected by this destructive disorder, please contact Bio-One for assistance. We remediate homes affected by hoarding on a daily basis and can connect you with tools that can help. We are on standby 24/7/365.
