Consumer advocates and mental health service professionals play an important role by referring people to AFCA or by providing representation throughout the complaints process.
Your support can help close the gap between people experiencing mental health conditions and financial services like AFCA, that can improve financial wellbeing.
You can find other helpful information for consumer advocates here.
How AFCA can help
AFCA – Australia’s financial ombudsman – provides individuals and small businesses with fair, free and independent dispute resolution for financial complaints.
Our service is impartial, which means we don’t take sides. If an agreement cannot be reached by negotiation or conciliation, we will decide on a fair outcome.
Decisions we make are binding on the financial firm. We can award compensation for losses suffered because of a financial firm’s error or inappropriate conduct, however we do not impose fines or award compensation to punish financial firms.
Our service is free to the public and your client does not need to pay someone for help when lodging an AFCA complaint.
Supporting complainants with mental health conditions
If you are supporting a client with a mental health condition, you can either refer them to AFCA or represent them in their complaint with us.
Our people are trained to handle complaints with compassion and safety. We can tailor our ways of working depending on your client’s individual circumstances.
AFCA also considers complaints involving financial hardship and we allocate them to a dedicated team.
Where appropriate, we encourage you to share information about AFCA’s free external dispute resolution service. You will find links to order brochures for your office, along with our logo pack for your website under ‘Resources’ below.
If you would like to connect with our Community Engagement team, contact us at community@afca.org.au.
Resources
AFCA has more information for consumer advocates who are supporting people with a mental health condition.
- Information for consumer advocates
- The AFCA Approach to financial difficulty: dealing with common issues
- Accessibility and support
- Fairness at AFCA
- AFCA's engagement charter
- Download our logo pack
Our publications are free to order online. Find all our publications including our complaint form and brochures here.
Case studies
Click on the tiles below to read more.
Other places to get help
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 000 for police and ambulance help.
Beyond Blue (1300 22 46 36) – 24-hour confidential information, counselling and support
1800 RESPECT (1300 737 732) – 24-hour confidential information, counselling and support for people impacted by domestic, family or sexual violence
13 YARN (13 92 76) – 24-hour crisis support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
QLife (1800 184 527) – Counselling and referral services for LGBTQI+ people
MensLine (1300 78 99 78) – 24-hour confidential counselling and referral services for men
SANE Helpline (1800 18 72 63) – Free counselling service for people with recurring, persistent or complex mental health issues and trauma, and for their families, friends and communities
National Debt Helpline (1800 007 007) – Free and confidential financial counselling services
Australian Health Department – Find a list of national organisations, websites and services that offer support, counselling, research and information about mental health and suicide prevention