Research Library
How mental health practitioners help to navigate financial difficulty
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Context
Financial problems can have a significant impact on the work of mental health professionals. A quarter of people with mental health issues are in problem debt. Their mental health can affect their income, cognitive processes like short-term memory, and psychological factors such as motivation, which can make it difficult for them to solve financial issues. Although there is a link between mental health problems and experiencing financial difficulty, there is limited evidence on how mental health practitioners approach cases where the individual is struggling with their finances.
The study
The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute conducted this study in 2017. The study aimed to explore how much secondary mental health practitioners know about the role of finances in mental health problems, how well prepared they are to deal with these difficulties, and what they need to be more confident in supporting people experiencing these issues. The study used a mixed-method approach, including:
- A literature review;
- Engagement with relevant experts;
- A survey of 217 practitioners working in secondary mental health services;
- A survey of 425 people with lived experience of mental health; and,
- Semi-structured, depth interviews with 22 mental health practitioners.
Key findings
The study identified findings in relation to four key themes:
- Over half (57%) of NHS trusts in England require that commissioned services routinely ask about finance but, when this is not a requirement, practitioners are sometimes unnecessarily and overly cautious about raising the subject, meaning they can often miss it. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of people accessing mental health services who were in financial difficulty stated that they were not asked about it.
- Almost all practitioners (91%) said they would tell service users how to access an advice agency for practical help. However, when practitioners do try to signpost to appropriate support services, they find that the services are not able to meet the needs of some people with mental health problems. They then spend more time trying to help people to access or communicate with these services.
- Practitioners are uncertain about the scope of their role when providing practical support related to financial difficulties and often feel that someone else would be better placed to provide this.
- The limitations of existing advice and support combined with the often complex and urgent needs of service users means that practitioners often feel the need to intervene on their behalf (for example, by contacting creditors or helping with forms).
- The complexity of communications pathways and data protection can hamper practitioners’ attempts to provide practical support to service users.
- There is scope for practitioners to use their clinical training and specialist skills to support people to change their patterns of thoughts and behaviour around money, leading to meaningful and sustained change. Very few practitioners currently intervene in this way; it tends to be on an ad-hoc basis.
Points to consider
- Although efforts were made to produce a representative sample for the qualitative interviews, in some cases a ‘snowballing’ technique was used to recruit contacts. This approach may have introduced some sampling bias.
- This report is relevant to all mental health practitioners in the UK, but particularly to those working in secondary mental health care.