Financial Wellbeing

The goal of this National Institutes of Health (NIH) Stage 1a study is to develop and pilot test a research- and community-informed financial counseling and advocacy (FCA) intervention for dementia family caregivers in early and middle adulthood. The main question it aims to answer is: Is a research- and community-informed financial counseling and advocacy intervention usable, feasible and acceptable for dementia family caregivers in early and middle adulthood? Participants will engage in a four-week single group financial counseling and advocacy intervention and complete pre- and post-intervention measures addressing financial well-being, caregiver strain, workplace productivity, and flourishing along with usability, acceptability, and feasibility measures.

This study evaluates the integration of two complementary poverty alleviation programs: Compassion International's (CI) child-focused Survival and Early Childhood Program with International Care Ministries' (ICM) household-level Transform + Family Academy intervention. CI's program provides holistic child development through health support, educational programming, social development, and spiritual formation via local church partners for children aged 3-5 years. ICM's Transform + Family Academy combines a 15-week household intervention targeting health education, livelihood training, and values formation with an 8-week early childhood education component delivered through home visits. The primary aim of this research is to assess whether integrating household-level interventions with child-focused programming enhances early numeracy and literacy outcomes among children aged 3-5 living in extreme poverty in Western and Southern Mindanao, Philippines. The study also examines the intervention's impact on children's nutritional status and household financial resilience, including savings behaviors and access to social safety nets. The investigators hypothesize that addressing household-level constraints including caregiver capacity, health, and economic challenges will enhance children's academic and nutritional outcomes alongside household financial resilience compared to child-focused programming alone.

The financial condition children live in when they are young can affect their health, not only in their childhood but also throughout their lives. The cost-of-living crisis means many families are 'going without' the basics. Many people do not claim all the benefits they are entitled to, or know how to solve money problems because they find it difficult to access advice. Parents with a new-born baby are especially likely to need financial support. Research shows that after getting money advice services linked up with routine health services, family income can improve. The investigators don't yet know if linking up money advice with routine health appointments improves parents' health and wellbeing as well as their household income. The investigators don't know whether making these services easy to access through linking them up has long term implications for children's health and wellbeing. Finally, at the moment the investigators don't know how best health and money advice services can be organised to help mothers or fathers who are in difficulty such as those who are homeless or have recently arrived in England. The goal of this trial is to improve low-income families' living conditions and ensure that all children have the best start in life. The investigators hypothesise a co-located approach will serve as a vital step toward a more integrated approach to health and social welfare, ultimately benefitting families in need. The investigators will be comparing one group of participants who will receive welfare benefits advice from a welfare benefits advisor (WBA) that is co-located with routine 6-8 week newborn health check appointments in a Children and Families Centre (CFC). The other group will receive standard care and be given information on where they can access welfare benefits advice.