Reports on mental health and essential services from Citizens Advice

Citizens Advice, our partners in the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, have published two new reports on how people with mental health problems engage with essential services such as utilities and telephone companies.

The first is based on in-depth interviews with 32 local Citizens Advice advisors. It explores their experiences of the extra support on offer in essential services for people with mental health problems. The second is an ethnographic study examining the issues experienced by people with mental health problems when it comes to essential services.

The research found that most clients were unaware they could get support with their essential services, and even when people knew support existed, they struggled to access it without help. Clients with mental health problems can go through periods in which they will totally disengage with their providers and essential service accounts, and may not have informal support networks they can rely on for support during this time.

These reports are part of an ongoing policy programme from Citizens Advice, looking at how to increase the support available to people with mental health problems.

Find out more in a blog post about the research