Mental Health Accessible is a suite of programmes supporting essential services providers – such as banks, energy suppliers and water companies – to better support their customers with mental health problems.

Companies are relatively used to providing adjustments like braille letters or ramps for customers with physical disabilities, but little attention has been given to the mental health equivalents. The Mental Health Accessible programme aims to fill that gap.

Why it’s important

One in four adults experience a mental health problem each year, which can make it extremely challenging to use essential services. Things like picking up the telephone or opening the post can fill someone with such overwhelming anxiety, that they become impossible tasks. 

That leaves many people with mental health problems out of pocket, and stuck with services they don’t want or need. Even worse, it can cause further distress.

Why sign up

Becoming mental health accessible will make a huge difference to your customer’s experience and their financial wellbeing. It also makes good business sense. Not only will adopting these changes better equip your customer facing teams and reduce complaints, becoming mental health accessible will put you in an excellent position to meet future guidance from regulators on how companies should be supporting vulnerable customers.

The programme

The Mental Health Accessible programme ranges from focused areas of consultancy, looking at digital accessibility and debt communications, up to our accreditation award scheme. At the very heart of the programme is people with lived experience of mental health problems. We work with our Research Community, a group of nearly 5,000 people with experience of mental health problems, who share their views on the services offered by our consultancy partners and provide invaluable insight. Our packages start at £15k.

Our partners

We’re pleased to announce that Lloyds Bank is the first firm to achieve an ‘Essentials’ rating as part of our Mental Health Accessible programme. We have provided Lloyds with an action plan so that they can take further steps to make their services more accessible.

How to get involved

If you would like to find out more about becoming a mental health accessible firm please contact Rosie Normanton who leads the programme via rosie.normanton@moneyandmentalhealth.org

This project has been made possible through support from the Inclusive Economy Partnership – which is driven by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Cabinet Office – and Nesta.