Royal College of Psychiatrists: Debt and mental health: What is the evidence?

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Monday, 16, Jun 2008 12:00

Monday 16th of June sees the announcement of an exciting new initiative into debt and mental health from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, backed by the Finance and Leasing Association and the Money Advice Trust. The triumvirate have joined forces to commission a research project which will examine the relationship between debt and mental health problems, with the aim of improving knowledge and practice within the advice, lender and healthcare sectors.

The review will focus on the existing literature and research on debt and mental health and the impact it has on people with mental health problems. It will examine the social, economic, health and human costs of debt, as well as investigating the impact on those seeking help to sort out their debts, both from their lenders and from their local health authority. The review will end with a report, which will pull together this knowledge, as well as identifying gaps in our understanding of how mental health and debt are related.

Chris Fitch, Research Fellow at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, welcomed the research:

“This funding will support the first systematic review of the research evidence on the relationship between debt and mental health. Importantly, the review will focus both on the nature of the relationship between debt and mental health, and also the potential interventions to prevent debt and mental health crises occurring. The aim of the review is to use existing knowledge to inform and instigate effective action.

“The review forms part of an ongoing research programme at the Royal College of Psychiatrists on money, financial services, and mental health. We are delighted to be working with the Finance and Leasing Association and Money Advice Trust, as addressing debt and mental health requires a strong partnership across the credit, advice and health sectors”.

Stephen Sklaroff, Director General of the FLA, commented:

“This review will make an important addition to our knowledge about debt and mental health. The FLA’s Lending Code already requires our members to deal sensitively with customers who have made them aware of any health conditions. We are proud to support this new initiative, and look forward to the results.”

Joanna Elson, Chief Executive of the Money Advice Trust, said:

“It is estimated that people with mental health problems are three times more likely than average to be in debt. This project will be immensely helpful in identifying and helping to ‘translate’ academic findings into a practical, user-friendly format and supporting those in the advice sector to understand the consumer behaviour of people with debt and mental health problems in relation to seeking advice.”

Note to editors:

Finance & Leasing Association (FLA)

FLA has been heavily involved in mental health research and initiatives in recent years. A DVD, produced in collaboration with Citizens Advice, gave advice to lenders on how to train their staff to deal sensitively with customers who have made the lender aware of their mental health problems. This was followed by a pamphlet for carers of mental health patients, advising them on how to help their patients with debt problems, and where to go for more specialist advice for more complex problems. This was a co-production between FLA and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

FLA is the principal representative of the asset, consumer and motor finance sectors in the UK. In 2007 FLA members did £93.0 billion of new business. £28 billion was provided to the business sector and UK public services, representing almost 30% of all fixed capital investment in the UK last year (excluding real property and own-account software). The remaining £65 billion was provided to the consumer sector, representing almost 30% of all unsecured lending in the UK in 2007. FLA members provided £18.9 billion of motor finance in 2007 and financed more than 50% of all new car registrations in the UK.

For further media information, please contact:

Helen Saxon, FLA

T: 020 7420 9664 E: helen.saxon@fla.org.uk

M: 07918 766 993

Money Advice Trust

The Money Advice Trust (MAT) is a charity formed in 1991 to increase the quality and availability of money advice in the UK. MAT’s vision is to contribute to reducing unmanageable debt of UK consumers and its mission is to support individuals in the UK with unmanageable debts and to improve the capacity, quality and efficient delivery of free-to-client independent money advice, through:

• Co-ordination

• Influence

• Direct service provision

• Training

• Research

• Information provision.

For further media information, please contact:

Jon Elwes, Money Advice Trust

T: 020 7653 9722

E: jon@moneyadvicetrust.org

Royal College of Psychiatrists

The College’s core purposes are to: