One of the special projects mentioned in last month’s Devil’s Advocate – the Money Check Up Program – has commenced this month. Money Check Up is an online briefing for local primary, community and mental health and wellbeing services, which outlines the connection between financial stress and poor mental health, and provides an overview of the kind of work that a financial counsellor does. Most importantly, each briefing gives attendees an opportunity to meet and chat to attending financial counsellors who work at their local agencies.
We have conducted five sessions this month with staff in Mental Health and Wellbeing Hubs across the state. So far, we have reached a total of 53 professional counselling and case worker staff in various services, including MIND Australia, Uniting VT, ERMHA365, CoHealth and EACH.
We really appreciate the willingness of the financial counsellors who participated in the sessions and provided a local financial counselling contact for the Hub staff. So far, we have had 15 financial counsellors join us from the following agencies:
- South East Community Links
- Anglicare Victoria – Box Hill
- EACH
- Cultura
- Better Place Australia (Geelong)
- Salvation Army – Geelong
- Anglicare Victoria – North Melbourne
- Good Shepherd
- Salvation Army – Sunshine
- Anglicare Victoria – Gippsland
- Bendigo Family and Financial Services
- Upper Murray Family Care
- Salvation Army – Ballarat
Providing a friendly financial counsellor face at each meeting proved invaluable, and facilitated many fruitful discussions between the Hub staff and their local agencies. The financial counsellors were also of great assistance in the Q&A segment of the session, demonstrating their professionalism, knowledge and approachability to all those present.
Following each briefing, attendees are provided with access to a dedicated page of the FCVic website, on which they can find a series of factsheets, ready for distribution to Hub participants, and a recording of financial counsellor Jenny Elvey, from Bendigo Family and Financial Services, discussing how her agency works with participants who have been referred from the MIND Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub.
Of those attendees who completed a post-session survey, all reported that their understanding of financial counselling – and their confidence to refer a participant to a local financial counselling service – had increased enormously. Here’s hoping that community members with financial issues contributing to their mental health problems will be better able to seek support from their local financial counselling services.