Financial Coping Strategies of Mental Health Consumers: Managing Social Benefits

Abstract

Mental health consumers depend on social benefits in the forms of supplemental security income and social security disability insurance for their livelihood. Although these programs pay meager benefits, little research has been undertaken into how this population makes ends meet. Using a qualitative approach, this study asks what are the financial coping strategies of mental health consumers? Seven approaches were identified: subsidies, cost-effective shopping, budgeting, prioritizing, technology, debt management, and saving money. Results illustrate the resourcefulness of mental health consumers in managing meager social benefits and highlight the need to strengthen community mental health efforts with financial capabilities education.

Money, Social Relationships and the Sense of Self: The Consequences of an Improved Financial Situation for Persons Suffering from Serious Mental Illness

“…A few studies have examined the way in which poor people with SMI describe how they have been able to manage outside psychiatric institutions when faced with this double trouble. Ware and Goldfinger ( 1997 ), Wilton ( 2004 ), Caplan ( 2014 ) and Topor et al ( 2014 ) reported similar findings in different socio-political contexts. The individuals they studied had developed both personal and collective ways of coping with financial constraints.…”

“…Persons with SMI deal with poverty in different ways (Caplan 2014 ), and if their economic conditions improve this makes it possible for them to deploy strategies that enhance their everyday lives and transform their longing for social intercourse into goal-directed practices in the form of personal projects.…”

Participants’ Assessment of the Impact of Behavioral Health Self-Direction on Recovery

“…Mental health service users who receive public benefits such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance live on an extremely limited income and have considerable difficulty meeting their material needs (Kessler et al, 2008; Wilton, 2003). They employ various coping and survival strategies, including cost-effective shopping, budgeting, prioritizing, and saving money (Caplan, 2014). The evidence here indicates that self-directing participants incorporate a range of such strategies into their budgeting and planning process.…”

Counseling Strategies for Empowering People Living in Poverty: The I‐CARE Model

“…Counselors might ask clients how they are making the most of their challenging circumstances or what motivates them to continue trying to cope amidst such challenges. Financial coping among the poor illustrates the strengths inherent in how people make ends meet (Caplan, ). Caplan () identified seven financial coping strategies in a study of individuals with mental illness receiving Supplemental Security Income: (a) using outside subsidies/programs, (b) cost‐effective shopping, (c) prioritizing expenditures, (d) budgeting, (e) using technology (e.g., paying bills online at the local library), (f) limiting debt, and (g) actively attempting to save money.…”