Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) has worked with HM Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care to develop a new elearning programme about how to help people receiving mental health crisis treatment get help with their debts.

The Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space (MHCBS) programme is aimed at health and care professionals who may be asked to provide evidence for a MHCBS application or to deal with requests from debt advice providers related to a MHCBS.

MHCBS is a debt respite scheme that provides protections for people in England and Wales who are struggling with problem debt and receiving mental health crisis treatment. The protections include pausing enforcement action and contact from creditors and freezing interest and charges on their debts. A MHCBS will help to create time and space for a person to get the treatment they need, without having to worry about their debts growing or their creditors contacting them during their treatment.

This elearning programme explains the scheme, how to complete the evidence form and how to refer someone to a debt advice provider for this purpose. More information, including access details, is available on the Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space programme page.

More information about the MHCBS scheme is available on the gov.uk website.