My Money: Money Tracking 4+

Currently when supporting people with Learning Disabilities to manage their money, we rely on people’s mathematical understanding and cognitive ability. People with Learning Disabilities often have difficulties in these areas and can therefore find themselves in financial crisis. This can impact many areas of their lives including their mental health.
Mind states that ‘money and mental health are often linked. Poor mental health can make managing money harder and worrying about money can make your mental health worse’.
The World Health Organisation’s ‘Impact of Economic Crisis on Mental Health’ (2011) document also states ’it is well known that Mental Health problems are related to deprivation, poverty, inequality and other social and economic determinates of health. Economic crisis are therefore times of high risk to the mental wellbeing of the population….’.
As recognised within The Good Lives Model (Ward, 2002) all people strive to achieve desired goals/goods in life, such as Excellence in Play and Agency. When there is a deficit in people’s skills, they may use maladaptive strategies to achieve these goods. This can result in offending and challenging behaviours.
The aim of developing this accessible money management app is to support people with a reduced level of understanding to more successfully manage their money.
The aim of the app is to enable its users to track their monetary income and outgoings to gain a clearer picture of their financial situation. They can do this by selecting how and what they spend their money on and be able to visually see this money decrease/increase. The app will be accessible and therefore include visual stimulus (e.g. symbols, photos) to aid understanding. The app is also hoped to include prompts regarding when money is running out.
By providing people with an accessible app that increases their ability to manage their money, it is hoped that people will have increased independence, increased financial understanding and awareness and more opportunities for meaningful occupation as a result.