Neurodivergent people need debt support that meets their individual situation
Marian Anghileri has been reading a new report from our friends at StepChange debt charity. Their research reminds us that empathy and support tailored to the individual’s situation and capability are critical in helping neurodivergent people.
Marian is a specialist debt and money adviser at Citizens Advice Epsom & Ewell. (3 minutes)
Public awareness of the experience of neurodivergent people has never been higher. The government has just announced a review of rising demand for mental health, autism and ADHD* services.
At Citizens Advice we have long known that household finances can be more difficult for neurodivergent people and those in poor mental health.
Different minds, shared challenges: making debt support more inclusive, new StepChange research, has valuable messages for support groups, carers and family members.
All respondents were diagnosed with autism or ADHD, the conditions most commonly described as neurodevelopmental or neurodivergent. 97% of the group say they find it ‘sometimes harder to manage debt’. The researchers list examples of the special challenges they face:
- making impulse purchases
- keeping track of outgoings and debts
- missing payment deadlines
- responding to creditor communications
Barriers to support
Experiencing these and other difficulties respondents who asked for debt advice spoke about barriers that inhibited their request:
- anxiety about the process
- overwhelming by information
- not completing the application due to short focus
- found it a struggle to fill out the forms
- couldn’t communicate properly with available methods.
Disclosure
There is clear evidence of reluctance to disclose a neurodivergent condition. One in three respondents felt they couldn’t; and of those one in 5 felt they didn’t get the help they needed.
At the heart of the report is a summary of the obstacles respondents encountered after beginning their request for support. Some found the tone of advisers negative or even judgmental; some couldn’t cope with the available communication channel; for others the complexity of the required tasks – for example using a budgeting tool – was too much; while others just found amount of information they had to absorb overwhelming.
Key principles
Based on this evidence, final sections of the report contain advice for the advisers!!
In summary, no one-size-fits-all approach meets every neurodivergent person’s communication needs. The watchwords must be patience, flexibility, compassionate support.
This leads to Ten Key Principles I’m happy to recommend to my debt advice colleagues and anyone able to support. Understanding the neurodivergent conditions is vital but so is working out the needs of the person. At CAEE we always aim to be inclusive, to offer a full range of contact channels and where it will help give direct individual support.
Have a look at the report and see what you think.
* Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder