General Advice (sorry not Debt Related Personally)

bloolagoon

Morning.

I was recently made redundant and am a MH professional. I have now applied to a position that supports people with MH in a hollistic approach.

One part of the position is debt/money/employment (lack of) etc. The clinincal side of the application form I can perform but admit I am struggling with the debt side. I am old fashioned and also may have been lucky in life as I have never acquired debt. I go without TV or luxury items/food as opposed to taking credit. I think this goes back to "hiding from the provy man" as a child.

So can anyone help me to do some reasearch to understand debt, the causes and solutions. I only need a general understanding and can glean much information on solutions from the information on here, but I do not beleive I could do the job justice if I can not understand the foundations of how people find themselves here. I also do not understand how card companies can justify giving more credit (do they not have a legal resonsibility too).

As I have digressed from - I can treat the clinical side of Mental Health but I feel in order to justice to the position and the patrons I require more understanding than I have now. I am not expecting any personal disclosures merely and overview of debt and how it works.

Feel free to ignore my post too (am aware that I am not in this position, otherwise I'd clearly not need help) but if I am successful at gaining this position I would be a much better worker if I had some understanding as I freely admit to being judgemental at times i/c to this area and that is a failing of mine that I need to rectify.

brummiebabe

I'm a mental health professional too - Martin's done a really good guide on here (sorry can't do the links...) which would be a good start. Is it going to be a direct part of your job or do you just need to know who to signpost people to for specialist advice? We have a CAB worker linked to our team.....they are the specialists.... Don't think many mental Health workers would see it as being directly their role.

Good luck with the application!!

ktez

You are indeed lucky to never have relied on debt of any kind.

I earn £20k a year and my husband earns about £45k and I am in debt to my eyeballs. Stupidity on our part really because if we had saved for the items we needed and budgeted better, we wouldn't be in this situation.

I started out very young and had a mortgage by the age of 19 with my husband and had four kids in quick succession. The need to keep the family standards in line with everyone else around us meant that I regularly relied on credit cards and loans. The credit was so easy to come by (about 15 years ago). Unfortunately we also invested in a property in Turkey that went belly up and this, combined with my husband starting up a business which then failed, meant that we found ourselves in a bad situation debt wise. We are trying to get through this at the moment but it might be years before we are debt free again.

I totally agree with Martin Lewis that budgeting and paying bills etc should be taught in schools. Unfortunately not everyone is as lucky as you and disciplined enough not to be tempted to 'have it all'. This of course does not make my husband and I bad people, we just wanted the very best for our kids. Of course now I know life is not about all that and i try to teach the kids the value of money so they do not repeat the same mistakes i made.

There are many, many different reasons that people get into debt, some are self inflicted, some are not. I don't think this generation will be the same as it is so much more difficult to gain credit now and rightly so. We should all be going back to the old fashioned way of saving and buying when you have the money to buy it!

fatbelly

If you read Martin's articles on this site

and the National debtline factsheets

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#3

then you'll probably be as well clued up (and possibly more up to date) than the average CAB debt adviser!

It's important that you get a feel for the way the debt process (and the potential strategies for dealing with it) operates as creditors and collection agencies use psychological warfare that causes stress to even the mentally well!

You may have more difficulty navigating your way around the benefits system (shifting sands comes to mind).

bloolagoon

Thank you both for the post. I will be popping in and out but school holidays and children mean it will be sporradic.

I will not be working (if successful) with the debt/benefits side of the post the position is to work with those patrons who have MH needs and are suffering from Debt and all that goes with it. Ie CAB and other agencies will refer to myself for clinical treatment with regards the stress and anxiety of this situation. I feel it were therefore be appropriate for me to have an understanding of the underlying causes of the condition I am treating.

I certainly do not think anyone is a "bad person" far from it, there are few good or bad people just good and bad decisions (and a sliding scale between), I just need to understand how it comes about so I can better treat those with Mental Health / Anxiety and Stress who are dealing with these issues.

fatbelly

We should also mention that there's been a lot of work regarding debt and mental health (Money Advice Liaison Group deserve credit here) and our Martin has produced a guide that ties a lot of it together in a readable format

Mental Health & Debt Guide

tallyhoh

My partner has NPD & has always been severely in debt due to "entitlement".
If you ever come across any solution to treat this problem in your research I would be pleased to know.

Sorry, can't help with your research but if you ever want to know anything about NPD.......

dancingfairy

Well debt and mental health are obviously very closely linked. There's 2 ways around to look at it:
1) debt causes mental health problems and
2) mental health problems cause debts.

1) the anxiety and stress people can be under when dealing with debt can be huge - dealing with different organisations, threatening and constant telephone calls, letters, bailiffs, debt collectors etc etc, obviously even greater if people aren't getting any help.
2) obviously anxiety disorders, depression etc etc can cause people to ei not manage their money well - perhaps they go on massive spending sprees when manic/high, perhaps they shop to make themselves feel bettter (increase their self-esteem). Also people with mental health problems may also be on benefits which again is going to contribute to having financial problems.


The reasons people get into debt is many and varied - loss of job, problems with their business if self-employed, break down of relationship, wanting to give their kids the best, keeping up with the Jones', their other half running up debts and then running off, death, illnes, injury and most of all a basic understanding of how finance operates. Payday loans particularly are an easy but nasty trap to fall into - you borrow a small amount here this payday, then payday comes and you roll it over and borrow a bit more, then interst gets added, then you borrow more etc. It is actually really easy to get into a huge mess very quickly with the absolutely huge rates of interest.
I definitely think it is a lifetstlye thing - you have to look at everything holistically as debts can mean huge changes in lifestyle, as can mental health problems. It really does need to all be looked at together.
df
P.S I think lack of control of the situation and lack of understanding what's going on, as well as admitting to not knowing would be very frightening so I think the person needs to be clued up on their rights (what bailiffs can and can't do for example and the difference between debt collectors and court bailiffs) as well as a plan to deal with the debt (and possibly the causes of debt).

dancingfairy

More thoughts:
I also think actually doing something would help - no matter how small to take control of the situation - tools like keeping a spending diary or having a NSD or having a storecupboard challenge (ie check what's lurking in the back of the cupboard and see what you can make into a meal by only buying the bare essentials). It helps people to feel less powerless. O.k it doesn't solve the worlds problems but it's a start.
I also think hobbies and other things to focus on are useful tools as well as general breathing/relaxation techniques would help.
df