October 10th is World Mental Health Awareness Day

A healthy person isn’t just one without any physical ailments or diseases. A healthy person is one who is sound not just physically but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. A person’s mental health depends on his or her state of mind.

According to World Health Organisation(WHO), changes in mental state occur in adolescence and the early years of adulthood due to change in schools, jobs, cities, etc. Though this period is exciting for most people, there are others who deal with stress and anxiety during this time. If the depression is not recognised and managed, it can lead to mental illness.

One of the main cause is that physical illness is detected easily, the sickness of mind is not easy to detect. People are not aware and not as serious about physical sickness like the mental sickness. There are various factors that contribute to mental illness among young people. A lot of youngsters have developed bad habits of hard drugs, alcohol and other dangerous substances, which cause damages to the brain. Others are a victim of bullying in college, workplace or even cyber-bullying.

Mental sickness is the most powerful, the most destructive and most distressing sickness in the world. And in today’s time, it is more common in young people than other age groups. The world is changing constantly and the number of people with mental illness is constantly increasing too. And if steps are not taken the numbers will rise even further.

Mental health and insurance

Key points

• People with mental health problems are protected by disability law so insurers can’t unfairly discriminate against them
• Some types of insurance will legitimately be more expensive for people with past or present mental illness due to there being a higher risk involved
• If you’re struggling to find cover always call an Independent Financial Adviser

Income protection and mortgage protection

In its 2015 claim report, insurer Legal and General cited mental health problems as the second most common cause of income protection insurance claims, accounting for 22% of its claims, while Aegon said mental health accounted for 29% of its claims in 2015.

Because of this, it’s perhaps unsurprising that claims for pre-existing mental illness will be excluded from most income protection and mortgage protection policies.

However, you should still be able to find cover for other unrelated illnesses and injuries.

As with health insurance, pre-existing conditions are likely to apply with illnesses in the last five years.

Life insurance

When you apply for life insurance, insurers will ask about any pre-existing conditions, including mental illness.

This means that comparison sites will only give you an idea of your price, with the actual cost being confirmed once you’ve given more details about your health.

Insurers will usually also ask for your permission to access your medical records, so it’s futile to try to conceal mental health problems.

Under the Equality Act, insurers can’t charge more or refuse cover without good grounds, but depending on your condition you may find that mental health problems past and present could make getting cover more challenging.

1st Financial Foundations are Independent Financial Advisers, we understand mental health is as important as physical. If you would like to know your options please contact us on 01908 523 420 or email info@95.154.196.167. 

For more information on mental health view here  World Health Organization

Source: go compare, little you know