Economic security: An essential component of recovery.

Abstract

People with psychiatric disabilities often face complex financial situations that make them unable to exercise choice in how their financial resources are allocated to needs including health care, housing, education, leisure pursuits, and other important life activities. One avenue to address these barriers is by helping people increase their financial literacy or knowledge of how to manage and budget their money effectively, accumulate assets, and reduce or deal with debt. However, our field has not focused sufficient attention on improving the financial literacy of the people we serve. Unfortunately, people with mental illness are significantly less likely to have any savings than those without mental illness. This makes them excellent candidates for state and federal programs that help low-income individuals accumulate savings that are exempt from asset limits for all federal means-tested programs. Growing out of these efforts, a field known as "asset-based welfare" has evolved to understand the role of assets in the promotion of individual and collective welfare. In an uncertain economy, the time is right for the field of psychiatric rehabilitation to expand its focus to include community and economic development activities that promote financial security.