Grant awarded for collaborative personal finance project

Dr Alex Hall (Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work) led the grant application along with Professor Debbie Price of MICRA. Nicola Glover Thomas, Professor of Medical Law was co-applicant.

The project is a collaboration between FBMH and the Faculty of Humanities and has been awarded £150,000 by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The project examines what happens when older adults experience difficulties in managing their money. The researchers are investigating how social care practitioners, older adults, and their families attempt to address these difficulties, and how people can be supported.

The project objectives are to:

• produce an analysis of (a) legal, policy, professional and practice frameworks relating to financial capacity assessment and support; and of (b) information available to older adults and their families concerned about declining financial capacity.
• generate primary data and analysis about the experiences of social care professionals, older adults and their families of assessing financial capacity and supporting someone with diminished capacity in the management of their finances.
• synthesise the documentary analysis and primary research data, drawing on theoretical understandings of financial capacity. This will allow the researchers to critically examine the fitness-for-purpose of (a) the available frameworks and methods applied in practice, and (b) the information available to the public.