Workshop

Date: Thursday, 9/24

Time: 10-11:15am

This workshop explores the relationship among financial services, financial hardship, and well-being for people with psychiatric diagnoses, focusing on supported financial decision making (SFDM). Financial services include tools (bank accounts, debit cards, prepaid cards, phone apps, credit cards, payday loans, etc.) that allow people to receive, store, spend and save money, and borrow. While some attention has been paid to helping people with psychiatric diagnoses improve financial knowledge and skills to maximize effective and autonomous financial management, little is known about how financial services use impacts people’s financial situations. In this panel, we will address the importance of using financial services that are both safe and affordable, and accessible and understandable to all users, how they can allow for effective SFDM, and identify areas where advocacy is needed to create a financial services environment that truly works for everyone. Learning objectives include: – Define financial services and the importance of them being safe, affordable, and accessible to all. – Understand and explain how financial service use is relevant to people with psychiatric diagnoses, whether they control their own funds or not. – Describe support options currently available to people with psychiatric diagnoses who need help managing their funds and explain their strengths and limitations. – Describe supported financial decision making (SFDM) and its importance for people with psychiatric diagnoses. – Explain how financial services can allow for SFDM arrangements and identify how they can be used in the following situations:  i) a person who has their funds controlled by another person, giving them maximal autonomy and dignity in that situation;  ii) a person who could benefit from financial guidance and/or oversight, without relinquishing financial control, and  iii) a person whose support needs change over time. – Understand how to apply knowledge of financial services to clinical, research, or industry workflows.