Mental health issues and money: kindness is not good enough
(The Guardian Money News)

Being more understanding alone doesn´t give those with severe problems the services they needFor Andrew Dickens, the problems started as soon as he was old enough to get credit. `I was terrible with money,` he says. `And it was the late 90s and credit was dished out like sweets.` After leaving university, he would frequently build up debt on credit cards to fund his lifestyle, before being offered consolidation loans to bring the balance to zero. `And off you go again.` He was even given a £10,000 consolidation loan by a bank when `they knew I was unemployed`.A cocaine addiction, linked to his depression, accelerated the accumulation of debt - he estimates that at one point during his mid-20s, he owed more than £50,000. Continue reading...