Recovery and money management

Objective: Social recovery and external money management are important approaches in contemporary mental health care, but little research has been done on the relationship between the two or on application of recovery principles to money management for people at risk of being assigned a representative payee or conservator.

Method: Out of 49 total qualitative interviews, 25 transcripts with persons receiving Social Security insurance or Social Security disability insurance who were at risk of being assigned a money manager were analyzed to assess the presence of recognized recovery themes.

Results: The recovery principles of self-direction and responsibility were strong themes in participant comments related to money management.

Conclusions and implications for practice: Money management interventions should incorporate peoples' recovery-related motivations to acquire financial management skills as a means to direct and assume responsibility for one's finances. Staff involved in money management should receive training to support client's recovery-related goals.