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How Mental Health Problems Can Affect Your Finances
Mental health problems are common. Unfortunately, if you become unwell you may neglect your personal finances and create more difficulties for you to tackle when you recover. Alternatively, if you are living with a diagnosis such as dementia, you may worry about how you and your family will cope when your illness gets worse.

Mental health problems can mean:

• If your ability to work is affected there may be a sudden or, possibly, dramatic reduction in your income.
• Time away from home whilst you are cared for in hospital, making it difficult to keep abreast of your financial commitments.
• Your capacity to make financial decisions is affected, leading you to act recklessly or unwisely.
• You lose the motivation or the ability to concentrate to keep control of your finances.
• You become vulnerable to financial exploitation or abuse.

How Financial Problems Can Affect Your Mental Health
The stress and worry associated with trying to maintain control over your expenditure and keep your household running on an even keel can result in:

• Feelings of inadequacy and despair.
• Additional worries about the consequences of getting into debt.
• A lack of security, or pessimism about the future.
• Conflict within the family or amongst your carers, making it more difficult for you to achieve stability.
• Giving up control of your financial affairs to third parties, thus increasing feelings of powerlessness and loss of autonomy.
• Avoiding or failing to engage with services that might be able to help, for fear that they may be judgmental or coercive.

Making A Start
There are lots of good reasons to begin financial housekeeping as soon as possible.It is very easy to put it off, but investing time now will pay dividends.

Getting on top of your finances will:

• give you the opportunity to look at your financial commitments and decide how to prioritise them
• encourage you to explore ways of using your money more effectively
• allow you to re-evaluate your lifestyle
• help avoid financial crises
• make you less vulnerable to financial problems if your mental health problems get worse
• increase your confidence and self-esteem as you become better informed and find sources of good quality advice.

Plan for the future too so that you feel confident should you become unable to manage your finances yourself. Start thinking about who may be a good person(s) to deal with your financial affairs, should you, for example, need to go into hospital or your mental health deteriorates.

Personal Help And Support
Trying to keep your finances on an even keel – and coping at home – when you have mental health problems, is easier if you are getting the right kind of emotional and practical support. The following people can offer different kinds of help, depending on your circumstances:

• Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) and other specialist advice centre staff – for free practical advice on work, benefits and finance. CAB are a good generalist advice service, who can refer you on to specialist advisors or projects if necessary
• a public services pathfinder, such as a social worker, GP, health visitor, key worker or care coordinator – to help you obtain social care, additional health services, a benefits review or access to an employment scheme
• psychological, psychiatric or outreach support workers – to help you cope with your feelings and reactions to financial pressures, or to help with motivation and organisation for work or money management (some of this help may have to be paid for)
• financial advisors, lawyers and accountants – provide paid for advice. You might need help with things such as preparing your tax returns, advice on tax credits and allowances, contracts, power of attorney or wills
• your bank or building society – for financial advice. The 'Banking Code' means that they must treat customers sympathetically and positively, but if you find it difficult to talk to them directly, it can be done via CAB, who work with them all the time
• a trusted, competent friend or representative – to help run your home or accept legal responsibility for your finances when or if you were not able to do so.

When Treatment Is The Trouble
Even when you are dealing with your mental health problems, there may be issues that you encounter:

• Some people experience memory problems on some psychiatric medications, which may make it difficult to keep track of finances.
• Some people find that some psychiatric medications make them feel lethargic and lacking in motivation to control their finances.
• Some psychiatric medications cause shaky hands or twitches which can make signing names or using 'chip and pin' cards difficult.
• Some psychiatric medications can make people slow to move, and so they can be slow to perform such tasks as entering pin numbers in machines. This may cause them distress in busy shops if queues form behind them, or
• If you are in hospital, it might be very difficult to find the time and means to sort out financial issues.

If Your Medication Is Causing Problems
It might be useful to talk to your GP or prescribing doctor about the side effects of your medication. It is possible that some of the symptoms might be short-term, or that medication can be reduced to get the balance between reducing unwanted symptoms and experiencing unpleasant side effects.

You could also consider contacting your bank or financial institution to alert them to the issues that you are experiencing and ask if they have options to help if you have problems signing, or using 'chip and pin' or cash machines.
It might help to try and time your shopping or banking for quieter periods so that you have time to sign or use the machines at your own pace. If you are able, try a few different shops until you find supportive staff or a local shop where staff can get to know you.

Dealing With Problems
Good financial planning can often become derailed when you are faced with an unexpected event or your mental health is under threat. Knowing your legal rights - or at least where to go for further help - is vital in order to keep problems to a minimum and avert a crisis. Sharing your problems with people you trust - and making the effort to seek out expert advice and information - can help you identify a realistic strategy for managing your situation more effectively.

Managing Debt
If you are worried about your debts it is essential to act sooner rather than later. Find out if there is a local money advice service or a money advisor within a centre, such as a CAB or law centre.

Your local CAB can provide guidance on how to prioritise your debts, work out a realistic offer to creditors, make a financial plan and negotiate with creditors, or tell you where to go for further advice. They are also used to working on your behalf with banks and building societies to help you get through your financial difficulties.
You could also contact the National Debtline, which provides a free information and advice service on 0808 808 4000 or visit their website at www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

For more information, please contact Mind on www.mind.org.uk or phone them on 0845 766 0163. A huge thank you to Mind for assisting with our feature on Debt and Mental Health.