Mental health: financial arrangements for long-stay residents

The process of preparing long-stay patients for relocation from mental health hospitals to the community has been well described, but little attention has been paid to the effects such a move has on arrangements for residents' finances. This article describes a system which seemed to mix the best of the traditional hospital banking system with modern community-based commercial banking services, and how the provision of a financial service to a group of institutionalised residents assisted in the process of re-personalisation.