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High Street bank, Lloyds, has become the first major organisation to sign up to the Mental Health Accessible standards, which have been created to make essential services easier to use for millions of people.
The standards are part of guidelines created by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute set up by televisions, Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert. The standard aims to make life easier for those who struggle with tasks like making telephone calls, opening posts or navigating online forms because of a mental health problem.
Organisations across the UK are invited to sign up to the standards and will be tested against eleven key measures, including training staff so they are more aware of mental health problems and ensuring that they can support customers to carry out important activities through text, email, web chat and face to face access.
Following a successful pilot scheme, Lloyds Bank has now signed up and it is hoped that the Mental Health Accessible standards can be extended across a range of firms and services.
Speaking about the standards on his website, Martin Lewis said: “Dealing with essential services can at times be frustrating and difficult for all of us, yet for some of the 12 million people in the UK with metal health problems, fear or difficulties navigating through the bureaucracy can lead to them being locked out, unable to use of pay for electricity, water, banking, the internet and more.
“Many firms already rightly make adjustments for people with physical or sensory conditions, but until now, they haven’t done the same for customers with mental health problems leaving a significant number of people at financial disadvantage or at its worst, a psychological risk.”
Find out more about the scheme online here: https://www.moneyandmentalhealth.org/
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