The Potential Effectiveness of a Financial Social Work Brief Intervention (FinSoc) on Clients' Financial Health

Background and Objective: Social work clients often encounter complex financial issues, including low income, debt, and poverty, which can impact their perceived physical and mental health outcomes. . In this study, we examine the relationship between financial issues and health through the perspective of financial health. In general, financial health describes the state of one’s personal financial situation. It has been suggested that financial health is determined by a combination of financial satisfaction, financial behavior, an individual's subjective assessment of his or her financial health, and the individual's objective financial status.

Methods: A financial social work intervention targeted at families with children, “FinSoc”, was employed to support social work clients experiencing financial difficulties. and promote families’ financial health. A pilot randomized controlled trial explored the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of the intervention. The study was conducted in 2022 - 2023 in Finland across eight different municipalities or municipal federations. Participating social work clients with children were randomly assigned to either the treatment group or the waiting list control group at a 1:1 ratio. Altogether, 30 clients participated in the study, with 16 in the treatment group and 14 in the control group. The intervention consists of five meetings where the following themes are discussed: personal finances, eco-social perspective on finances, family budget and emotions, and thoughts regarding finances.

Quantitative data from clients was collected at three measurement points. Major outcome variables included financial anxiety (via the standardized Financial Anxiety Scale (FAS)), financial self-efficacy (via the Scale of Economic Self-Efficiency), and financial literacy (via the Financial Literacy Scale). 11 intervention-receiving clients and 9 intervention-delivering practitioners participated in interviews.

Results: Results indicate that the intervention may have potential effectiveness on the financial health of social work clients when we compared the baseline measure to the three-month follow-up. For the control group, financial anxiety decreased on a scale of 1–4 from a mean of 3.2 to 3.0 (control group from 2.9 to 2.8). Financial self-efficacy increased from 2.5 to 2.9 on a scale of 1–5 (control group from 2.9 to 3.0), and financial literacy improved from 2.8 to 3.5 on a scale of 1–5 (control group from 3.1 to 3.3). Furthermore, the findings from qualitative interviews with clients indicated that the intervention had enhanced their financial health by improving their understanding of their financial situation and offering a safe atmosphere to discuss challenging topics related to finances. It also provided information and tools for managing financial matters.

Conclusion and Implications: The results of the study suggest that the financial health of clients in social work settings could be promoted by a brief intervention. Through these types of interventions, clients may receive guidance on understanding and managing their finances. From the perspective of conducting pilot randomized controlled trials, the study shows that it is insightful to approach the research with a mixed-method approach. In addition, it is beneficial to test the potential effectiveness of the intervention to further develop it and better respond to the needs of social work clients.