Mental Health issues: should we stop people borrowing money?

feistymiss

i forgot to mention that my partner also has mental health problems (bi polar) and is unable to work, he still lives at home, he also has a criminal record bought on to some degree by the domestic violence i suffered ..

the pressures for financial support on me also come from my children who out of 4, 3 have special needs, one has been diagnosed with OCD and probable Bi polar, none are independent, all live with an abusive parent, another has been in trouble with the police and has no income or outlook, the eldest now has bank charges when she only has ema as income and doesnt receive that as her poor health and hospital visits mean irregular payments, none are able to maintain their own sense of worth, the eldest is 20, 18, 16 then 13, so a huge toll, their abusive parent is neglectful and in debt himself - its a quagmire

so all in all, a huge amount of pressure on me, to support and help, adding to my own sense of proportion and ill health

ginjill

My ex husband ran up £230K of personal and business debt, then got an IVa, my 3 kidsunder 10 and i lost our home, at the time i suggested to family members that he was ill, but no one agreed..he has since being diagnosed with a bi-polar disorder, but i was soo difficult to get a diagnosis, even when he was sleeping in my garage, walking about without shoes, asking my kids to "dance with the devil" and thinking he was Jesus Christ, eventually i called an ambulance when he tried to committ suicide in my back garden, he was in hospital for months...enen with hindssight he was ill, i couldnt forgive him for paying £850 a month a top of the range car when he hadnt paid the mortgage for 6 months..............

suzyo

my brother is schizophrenic, he gets catalogue people phoning him on a regular basis, they talk him into getting very expensive items eg a 32in plasma tv - he has a very small flat and his previous telly was a portable 14ins!! does anyone know if there is anything that the family can do we are at our wits end. he tells us he is an adult and has the right to do what he wants, i can understand this but we are the ones left to pick up the pieces when it all falls apart which it does on a regular basis.

Savila60

Excellent discussion but a bit overwhelming! My partner has Bipolar Disorder and we've found MDF - The Bipolar Organisation to be really good on all kinds of information. Why not contact them and cook up an advice package for people with mental ill health, also with advice for banks etc on these issues,to be available via mental health websites and here on MSE? Website is http://www.mdf.org.uk/

Thanks for caring!

twiglett_sweet

i am writing this in reply to mental health issues should we stop people borrowing money i work with a group called thrive in the town i live which is looking in to this and many other people who live on the boreder line

mental heath is one of the groups we looked in to but did you know that a lot of people did not have this probblem untill they ended up in debt from borrowing but what can we do to stop this.

we have just started but finding out more and more every day
i dont get payed for this work i do it because i am one of them people myslef and i want to help other not end up the way i did.

chrisfitch

I came across this discussion totally by accident during a google search.

I work in mental health research and thought you might find interesting

https://www.mhdebt.info

https://www.mind.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/2C214D1B-3E7E-455E-B1F5-CAC6000E3F72/0/lookingafteryourpersonalfinances.pdf

https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1647558,00.html

the first site contains a booklet (Final Demand) I put together with some collaborators who have personal experience of mental health and debt (the booklet is sponsored by a financial organisation - the FLA - but they only supplied the money for us to print 30,000 copies, and had no say on content). the site also contains links to other resources.

the second site is a mind booklet (sponsored by Royal Bank Scotland - again to cover costs) on the issue.

the third site is an article I had in the guardian a while back - points out that debt and mental health isn't just about money (if that makes sense....)

be interested in what people think

chris

klare_2

I work in mental health and I am a housing support offier and my job is to support people in their own homes . The company I work for provide housing for people that have a history of enduring and severe mental health illness and part of our remit is to provide support in them managing their finances ... so the support is there. we also provide dispersed support to people that fit the criteria health wise but live in their own homes .
People should contact their local housing providers as a lot of councils are now providing this support. Usually it can be dipped into when needed especially with bi-polar etc Often the support is only needed when the persons health is not stable.
I also agree that lenders need to act a lot more responsibly and also have a bit more compassion and understanding when people like myself are trying to dig service users out of the financial messes they have gotten themselves into.
the question of capacity has also been raised ... most of my service users are reveiwed every 6 months and their care plan is put together and i can think of at least two people off the top of my head that have been deemed as having capacity to understand what they are doing and there fore are ' choosing' to act the way they do, but unfortunately this conclusion is drawn when they are sat in an office, in a formal environment usually after years of learning a practiced behaviour saying what they know the professionals need / want to hear.What the consultants dont see is how the patient / service user behaves when they are out and about, vulnerable to all the things that normal life chucks at them.
Far be it from me to question the consultants but I have actually witnessed a consultant who, when he began to hear things from the people involved in a guys support, proceeded to sit and SULK ( and yes I mean sulk with his bottom lip out and everything!) and then finally he simply closed the meeting!!!
The people who work in mental health work really hard, care passionately about what they do but the system, unfortunately is not good. Its a never ending battle.

I just want to add, as Im sure that ppl will see my signiture and wondder what I am doing giving financial support when i have a debt like that. 90% of the debt was created by my other half who has suffeed from depression for many years following hospitilisation for post traumatic stress disorder.
we are in a horrible situation but the silver lining i guess has to be the insight that I do have into what my service users are up against and also their families who get caught up in the ripple effect of their actions.

okay time to get off my soap box! lord knows I could ogo on all night about this one!

ampersand

Just to thank you, Martin, for another thoughtful, non-judgmental insight, backed by the experience of your upbringing. It offers a pointer to your humanity and stance on issues that need daylight.
Thankyou again.

Bigsaver31

This is a huge issue - I work for a small advocay charity and represent people with learning disabilities, some of whom live on their own (with help when needed) and some of whom have a dual diagnosis of lerning disability and mental health issues. For some time we have ben supporting several individuals who fall prey to cold calling - phones etc, shop over the phone, borrow on credit and shop with cards in stores. For some, they have agreed to credit cards over the phone, and have spent on the card and then contacted us when they can't pay. We try really hard to advocate on their behalf and try to get the banks to understand the nature of the persons disability and how they are affected by realising they are in debt. THis extends to utility companies and major stores (Argos is a persistent offender). Many people with learning disabilities who live on their own, don't have much contact with the outside world, so when a call comes through saying you have the chance to have a free phone - they would rather say yea than be persistent and stand up for themselves and say !!!!!! off - like most of us do. We are delivering a number of courses, to try to improve people's confidence to say no and not get drawn into long conversations in shops etc where they agree to take on credit. This has some success - and we can offer one-to-one support to individuals who need someone to speak on their behalf and help them clear their debt. This is such a big issue - we should shout more loudly about this topic!!:D

Lesley_El_Alami

Although serious, mental health issues (like many other stressful situations) can have their humourous side....for the sake of sanity of those around them.
My father had bi-polar disorder (not schizophrenia as the NHS had him labelled). In his manic phase he had 2,500 pushbikes, 50 cars (had to rent garages and even fields to store them) and eventually 5 houseboats. In the early 1980's the Manager of NatWest Bank at Uxbridge had had enough of his customers feeling intimidated by my father's manic behaviour which could at times seem threatening. Ultimately he took my father's cheque book off him and told him 'I don't care if you owe us £4,500, just get out and don't come back, you don't owe us anything'. The loan, which was a lot of money then was written off by the bank......now there's a saving!:T