In March 2020 the Supported Advice Team was set up to help people with poor mental health and severe mental illnesses (SMIs) with their debt, benefits and housing issues.
Clients are supported by experienced advisers with training in mental health awareness and communication skills. The client is allocated an adviser from the team who remains with the client throughout the advice process. The adviser advocates for the client with external organisations and our specialist advice teams. If appropriate they will refer the client to partner organisations.
In 2023/24, we supported 777 clients with over 4,750 debt, benefits and housing issues. We increased our clients’ income from benefits by over £700,000.
We have diversified our inward referral streams by developing relationships with (NHS) community mental health services, local government and mental health charities. We had over 650 inward referrals in 2023/24 with 75% from the local Primary Care Networks.
