The cost-of-living crisis is affecting mental health. What can community organisations do to help?

4-minute read

An anxious U.K.

In recent months, research has found that more and more people are reporting struggles with their mental health. This is particularly true for people on low or insecure (zero-hours) incomes, who are experiencing disproportionately high levels of anxiety and stress compared to those on higher incomes, or with more secure sources of income. Psychotherapists are also reporting that patients are citing increased living costs as a reason for declines in their mental health, due to worries about not being able to pay bills. The Mental Health Foundation suggests provision of financial support schemes to prevent people from experiencing poverty and financial stress.

For people struggling with their mental health, the lack of available assistance or knowing where to access any, are the most common issues people face. Therefore, how to respond to the current situation?

Hope in the community

At Habitus, we’re currently working with a NHS Mental Health Trust in London and a local charity in initiating an alliance model of care. This involves local organisations as providers of day-to-day support for NHS inpatients as a direct result of the increased pressures the NHS are seeing in relation to social crises. As part of this, we’re working with two brilliant local charities who are providing financial advice services – one for young people aged 25 and under, the other for adults over the age of 25.

Here are some of the learnings that we have from this work:

1.       Building relationships between NHS services and local organisations is mutually beneficial for people who are struggling.

As models for integrated care systems develop, the integrated care board (ICB) must look towards its community as both a source of additional support, and also an opportunity for innovation. As Mikayla*, a volunteer at one of the charities said, “once people leave their doctor’s appointment, they can be left out in the blue.” Local charities are a wonderful resource for providing targeted support for people’s needs, and provide an answer to the question of: What support are patients getting in the time between doctor’s appointments? The support provided can help people manage the situations contributing to their anxiety, depression, or stress, and be a catalyst on the path to recovery. Similarly, local organisations benefit from the connections made with NHS services in terms of receiving funding, expanding and growing their services, and raising their profile.

2.       The NHS does not have the capacity to meet demand, and local organisations can help.

“The NHS is on its knees” is a phrase (and unfortunate truth) we’ve become very familiar with in recent years. With mental health issues on the rise and demand for services increasing, there is a real risk of a ‘mental health pandemic’ while people wait to access services they require now. In cases where there is a clear cause of stress, such as financial pressure, there is an opportunity for community organisations to intervene and provide support for those on the waiting list. This ‘additional capacity’ can support preventative approaches to mental health, reduce the pressure on NHS services, and most importantly, make change for the people who need it.

3.       Local organisations want to help.

A recurring theme of this project with local organisations is that even though they have been successful in helping those in need and making real impact in their lives, they are keen to do more and expand their service offers. Whether it’s through recruiting more volunteers or making use of their networks to promote their service. Or if it’s simply through wanting to get more people who require help through the door, there is a real desire to provide assistance to local people in need. Which is all too often during this incredibly difficult time we are facing.

What to do?

Expanding the size of your organisation’s programme/service to help more people in your community is a great step towards taking on the mental health crisis we’re facing.

What we have found with the ‘alliance’ model of care is that combining resources with other local community organisations and working in a true partnership with the NHS and local authority brought significant benefits. There are both fewer overlaps and more gaps filled in accessible services for local people. Pathways are smoothed and there is better integration, which builds on coordinated person-centred care.

Additionally, we see organisations banding together to pool resources and leverage complementary skills and experiences. One way for charities and other third sector organisations to deal with the current financial challenges is to partner with private sector businesses, who are looking to increase their visibility in a community and/or increase their ESG credentials.

That could involve new and diversified income streams directly from private businesses or benefit from businesses involving their employees as volunteers or donating technology and/or materials. By working together, we can complete projects faster and build stronger ties with local communities.

Whether in partnership with other third sector organisations or private businesses, resource sharing is becoming very important for charities.

However, while we can provide assistance to those who require it to mitigate against the worst of their challenges, we cannot treat our way out of a mental health crisis. We can call for action that tackles the root causes of poor mental health, including poverty, financial strain, bullying and discrimination. This can be better achieved by coming together in partnership with other local organisations to strengthen the community’s voice. This can put concerted pressure on decision-makers to stop being reactive and instead develop and deliver long-term mental health plans with a focus on prevention of poor mental health.

Habitus has supported the setup, scaling, and impact evaluation of an alliance model of care for various organisations. Find out how we can help your organisation do likewise and for other types of support we offer by clicking the button below.

We are accomplished in peer research, co-production, action-based and anti-oppressive research and evaluation. We are experts in helping organisations to engage wider community participation in their projects so that their work is more inclusive and impactful. Through this approach we are dedicated to increasing lived experience leadership.