A big win! Government commits to joining up money and mental health support

It is fair to say last week ended on a high with the government’s announcement of Neighbourhood Health Services, an initiative for new local health centres providing mental health care and debt advice under the same roof.

It comes alongside the publication of ‘Fit for the Future’, the government’s 10 Year Plan to reform the NHS, that outlined three key commitments – (i) moving patient care from hospitals to the community; (ii) upgrading analogue systems to digital ones; (iii) and shifting the NHS’s focus from treatment to prevention. 

As part of this plan, the government has announced their ambition to divert funding from hospitals into 300 new Neighbourhood Health Centres across the country over the next decade. These are community-based health centres which will bring a range of traditionally hospital-based treatment to people’s doorsteps 12 hours a day, six days a week. The idea is to provide ‘one-stop-shop’ access to GPs, nurses, social care workers, mental health professionals and a range of other healthcare services to help reduce pressure on hospitals and provide a personalised, holistic approach to healthcare. The government aims for a Neighbourhood Health Center in every community, with priority given to regions where life expectancy is lowest.

But what excites us about these new plans is that debt and employment support will be co-located in these centres alongside health care. This means that people receiving mental health care will also be able to receive support with their finances under the same roof as part of their treatment.

Since the charity was founded nine years ago, we’ve been campaigning for better integration between financial support and mental health services. The link between financial difficulty and mental health problems has been long known, and we’ve campaigned to break this link through evidenced interventions such as joining up mental health care and financial support.

Too often, mental health treatment is offered without addressing the financial factors that can exacerbate poor mental health, such as the stress of trying to make ends meet, hounding debt collection or rising piles of missed bills. This results in many people facing readmission or extended illness once formal treatment has ended. 

Our research has shown that providing money advice alongside mental health care could double recovery rates for people with debt and depression – and help an extra 27,000 people with depression or anxiety recover from their mental health problems each year.

It also shows that joining up mental health care and financial support could make huge savings for the taxpayer, saving the NHS £144 million each year by reducing demand on overstrained health services. 

We’re pleased that the government has finally acknowledged the importance of co-located  mental health care and financial support, and is making promising steps to integrate the two by providing financial advice in Neighbourhood Health Centres.

We are optimistic that if implemented well, these changes could make a huge difference to the thousands of people with mental health problems in the UK, including members of our Research Community who have told us how much systems like this could help them.

The government’s commitment follows a groundbreaking pilot in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight which saw Citizens Advice caseworkers placed directly on acute mental health wards to provide advice on debt, income, benefits and family issues. The pilot saw huge benefits, with NHS savings of £5,000 per patient due to shorter stays, fewer readmissions and reduced outpatient care, providing really strong evidence to support our research. We’re pleased that the principles of this pilot and our research will be more widely adopted under the Neighbourhood Health Services, making it easier for people to receive holistic support to break the link between money and mental health problems.

Crucially, we’re excited to see Neighbourhood Health Services in action and how this scheme will open doors for other forms of integrated money and mental health support, such as the routine provision of money advice within NHS Talking Therapies. 

The challenge for the government now is to ensure these reforms are delivered well – if so, this could be transformative for the thousands of people trapped in the vicious cycle of money and mental health problems. We will continue to engage with the government to ensure these plans are successfully delivered upon.