Comments Off on An Advocacy Focus volunteer talks about their experience
Why did I come to volunteer at Advocacy Focus?
I came to Advocacy Focus because I was looking to expand my experience of mental health services. Volunteering with Advocacy Focus was a great opportunity because it allowed me to experience inpatient mental health services from a different perspective, one that is independent from the NHS. From the outset, staff from Advocacy Focus, were incredibly supportive. They made sure that I got the most out of my volunteering experience. Advocacy Focus recognised that I was in the middle of my master’s degreeand were incredibly flexible and understanding so that I could fit volunteering around my studies.
How does volunteering help you with your studies or your own personal journey?
Volunteering on the ward has given me a chance to be in an inpatient setting, which are often hard to access. It has broadened my knowledge of mental health experiences of older adults and the Mental Capacity Act. This knowledge and experience has been helpful for my studies , my part-time role as a Mental Health Support Worker, and will continue to be helpful for the rest of my career.
The role is centred around talking to the people we work with , listening to them, and finding out what they want and need. Within any service it is vital that professionals recognise the views of the people they work with. It has been refreshing to be able to focus solely on this – as that’s what advocacy is about!
What would you say to other people thinking of volunteering?
I think if you’re looking to broaden your knowledge and experience within mental health, this is a great opportunity – whether you have worked in mental health or not.
Comments Off on An Arachnophobic’s blog to living in a world full of the creepy creatures
Hi, my name is Becci and I am an arachnophobic.
For as long as I can remember I have lived my life in deep fear of the nasty little eight-legged creatures, I have no idea where it came from, which is partly why therapy can be so tricky. I have no memory there being something from childhood that triggered this. In fact, as a child, I would happily watch the cartoon version of Charlotte’s Web and sing Incy Wincy Spider without it causing any distress. My parents haven’t passed this phobia down to me. My mum doesn’t like spiders, but she is nowhere near to what you would call “phobia level”. It also didn’t develop because I’d heard some horrible information about spiders on TV, or in a book, that caused me to fear for my health and wellbeing. It has just always been there.
I am, what you would call, the “on paper” stereotype of a person with a spider phobia, even my self-help book says so. I bought this self-help book over a decade ago when I was feeling very brave and thought “I’m going to beat this”. Over a decade later and I still haven’t read past chapter two, which pretty much makes me a massive failure as far as engaging in self-help goes. Anyway, chapter one of the book defines traits of an animal/ insect phobia as follows:
Sudden and severe panic and fear when faced with the animal– TICK! As soon as I see a spider anywhere near me, I suddenly feel a sudden and sharp jolt of bad butterflies in my stomach and chest, followed by a feeling of becoming very hot and dizzy and losing control of all logic and reason. Depending on how close and surprising the spider is, the event can also result in: shaking, heart palpitations, sweating, crying, hyperventilating, talking to myself and shouting at those around me.
Avoiding the feared animal- TICK! As much as I can, I will avoid all risk of meeting a spider. Have I jumped out of a moving vehicle because I have seen a spider? Yes. Have I refused to sit on a park bench in fear of one of those little red spiders touching me? Yes. Have I spent hundreds of pounds trying to spider proof my house? Yes. Will I ever go on holiday to Australia? Absolutely not!
Focusing attention on the source of the threat- TICK! As soon as I walk into a room I will scan all walls and floors for spiders. I’ve been late for work because there’s been a spider in my hallway, and I have been unable to leave until someone has removed it from my house. Every night when I get into bed, I will pull back my covers and pillows and check there are no spiders in my bed. If there is a spider in the room you can be sure I will find it, even if no one else has spotted it.
So what is the impact of living with arachnophobia?
The reality is that it affects not only me, but also those close to me. I’ve left my then-boyfriend’s (now-husband’s), house in the early hours of the morning because he was unable to find and remove a spider that had crawled up the bedsheets. I’ve woken him up countless times during the night while I check the bed for spiders.
My poor parents don’t get away from this either; when I lived with them, I once made them drive home from Liverpool in the middle of the night, mid-way through watching The Killers, because there was a large spider in the living room. I’ve also walked into their house in such a state from being faced with a spider, that they thought I’d been attacked. I can’t count how many times I’ve shouted at my husband and my parents for not reacting quickly enough in coming to my aid; or when they’ve tried to catch one, and the little critter has gotten away. I feel very sorry for my poor, poor family for having to put up with my behaviour.
They’ve told me countless times that I should seek professional help to combat my phobia. The annoying thing for me is that when not directly faced with my fear, I understand that it’s completely irrational and I will often beat myself up that I should stop being a coward. I know that spiders can’t really harm me, and I am aware that they are probably more scared of me than I am of them. I am hopeful that one day I will finally break free from the grasp of those eight legs that are currently holding onto me.
I am very lucky in the sense that my close family do take my phobia seriously and they are willing to help me. However, often this is not the case with others: it’s common to witness people tutting, rolling their eyes, and staring at me if I’m in public and become distressed by a spider. Many people still won’t even consider that a phobia is a mental health condition (FYI, it falls under anxiety disorder for you sceptics). It’s unfortunate, but it’s true that society still doesn’t take phobias all that seriously, especially animal or insect phobias. The general response I get when I reveal that I have arachnophobia is for people to laugh and say, “oh yeah, I don’t like spiders either”, which is one of the most unhelpful things a person can say to someone with a phobia, as it dismisses the severity of what us phobics go through and experience as part of everyday life.
How do you help someone with an animal/ insect phobia you ask? I suppose that depends on the person. For me, it helps to remove the trigger, or move me away from the trigger. After this reassure me, listen to me if I want to talk about the incident; if I don’t then give me something else to focus on, try to make me laugh or play me a song that is uplifting or makes me happy. If you know someone living with a phobia, have a conversation with them. Take some interest and ask them what works for them, then do whatever that is if they become triggered.
I suppose what I wanted from this blog was to educate everyone that there is a big difference between a dislike and a phobia, and that it isn’t something that should be taken lightly. So next time you see somebody in distress or having a panic attack in response to their trigger, instead of mocking the person, be a human being and help them!
Comments Off on Autism Focus – Understanding the Autistic Inpatient Experience Conference – A month on.
“It’s been a month since we delivered the Autism Focus Conference, what a day it was! It was great to see so many other advocacy providers in attendance who were able to learn about the project but also share their own experiences of working within inpatient settings. There were best practice discussions across the sector, but also collaboration with health colleagues and plenty of take aways for improvements of individual services. I always value being able to spend time with colleagues across a range of health and social care services to develop relationships and improve partnership working in the best interests of the people we support. We hope in the future we can deliver another Autism Focus Conference to shine a light on the ‘real’ patient experience and continue to push for better support for people with autism.” Leanne Hignett, Services Director at Advocacy Focus
Here’s a roundup of the event
March 10th, 2023 marked a significant day in the Advocacy Focus’ calendar. Ellie, our Autism Champion and Manager of our Inpatient Advocacy Service, worked incredibly hard to deliver a thoughtful and impactful day full of eye-opening facts and expert guest speakers.
What we did not expect, however, was for the heavens to open and gift us with a beautiful winter wonderland the morning of the event. Even though we warned our guests to travel safe and leave plenty of time for travel, for some people the journey was just impossible. However, we at Advocacy Focus are a tenacious and resilient bunch, so we ploughed through the snow and arrived at the venue ready for the day ahead!
To make sure that nobody who had booked to attend the conference missed out, we provided a Teams link for delegates to join, allowing them to participate in discussions and activities.
Talk 1- Advocacy Focus Project Pilot Feedback, Presented by Ellie Bradley, Advocacy Focus
Elie began the day with a thought-provoking presentation which provided a summary of last year’s pilot and shared feedback from the autistic people we have worked with in inpatient facilities. Allowing, them to voice their views regarding their care and treatment, along with their experience of Advocacy. What inpatients would like to see change or be done differently in the future was also shared with attendees. The session encouraged everyone to reflect on the support they are providing and what organisations can improve on to make sure that people are moving into the world of the autistic person.
We created 5 videos to include the feedback from autistic patients which played throughout the presentation. You can watch the videos below to see exactly what their thoughts are on the care and support that they receive.
If there was one thing to take away from Ellie’s presentation, it was a powerful quote which truly put one autistic person’s experience into perspective.
“This has happened because people moved into my world. They stopped trying to drag me into theirs.”
Talk 2- Legal Remedies for Autistic People and/or People with Learning Disabilities Within Inpatient Services, Presented by Mat Culverhouse, Irwin Mitchell
Mat outlined the current and emerging legal frameworks which can directly impact autistic people and how these can be utilised to support the person’s rights while receiving care and treatment as an inpatient. Mat continued with the theme of advocating for the voices of those affected by a stay as an inpatient on a mental health ward, and shared powerful quotes from family and friends of autistic people who have been sectioned. This feedback included:
“I am scared they may not come out alive.”
“My son/daughter is in a forensic unit but has never committed a crime.”
“They are not the same person who went into hospital.”
“They are being treated as less than human.”
These quotes alone are a powerful representation of the real issues that happen every day and how not only is the person deeply affected, but also those close to them. They set the tone for why it is imperative that families, friends and those who receive care as an inpatient, understand their rights and the legal options that are available to them.
Mat then shared some facts about the scale of the situation. In November 2022, there were 5,335* reported uses of restrictive interventions in one month e.g., physical, chemical, mechanical, restraint and being kept in isolation.
Mat’s insightful presentation also highlighted;
Closed culture and the role of an advocate and guidance for CQC (Care Quality Commission) staff
Building the Right Support policy paper
Who I Am Matters – CQC report
The options for legal challenge: First-Tier Tribunal, Judicial Review, and Court of Protection.
Mat then outlined what comes next:
Draft mental health bill and implementation of changes
Continued work to hold the government to account for not adhering to previous intended timescales for moving autistic people and/or people with a learning disability out of Assessment and Treatment Units – Issues around Transforming Care and funding
Impact of the government and other bodies (such as NHSE/CQC) action
Irwin Mitchell’s dedicated pro bono legal surgery to provide specialist legal advice and support about Assessment and Treatment Units.
Talk 3- National Advocacy Review, Presented by Kate Mercer, Black Belt Advocacy and Gaily Petty, NDTi (National Development Team for Inclusion)
Gail and Kate invited attendees to be accountable and reflect on what could be improved within the advocacy sector. Some hard-hitting truths from the National Advocacy Review were shared, from people reporting that they felt they were treated as ‘less than human’ to reports of Advocates ignoring the needs of those they are supporting; their talk was a BIG eye opener and a call for the sector to act and to be better.
Organisations were invited to reflect on the standard of their current practices in specific areas. It became clear that a real need was identified that the sector needs to improve on demystifying what advocacy is and promoting the acceptance of advocacy within Assessment and Treatment Units.
The review uncovered some shocking accounts, one professional reported, “I found I had to push and push for people to get advocacy support when I was speaking to people out of our advocacy area.”
The frustration amongst advocates also rang loud and clear, with one advocate highlighting, “Lots of professionals think we’re substitute social workers.”
However, attendees from the sector did identify that the range of advocacy support in local areas was good, but many professionals are still unaware of advocacy and just what it is that an advocate can support with.
Gail and Kate ended their session with a commitment to act. For attendees to make a pledge on how they will take action to improve the experiences of autistic people who are inpatients and be part of the driving force that makes a positive change to the advocacy sector.
Talk 4- Looking Ahead, Presented BY Anna Moran (LSCFT)
To bring the day to a close, Anna from Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust (LSCFT) shared The Trust’s proposed Action Plan on how they will make positive changes within their organisation and provided attendees with the opportunity to provide feedback and ideas on alternative ways of working together.
LSCFT have developed a new Specialist Autism Team who are working to support wards to provide specialist support in clinical care. It was recognised that the themes highlighted by inpatients require systemic change, to ensure that they are reaching the entire autistic population, not just a few.
To support autistic patients in accessing equitable inpatient mental health care, they have explored the following themes:
Reasonably adjusted hospital settings
Therapeutically beneficial staff interactions
Equitable access to meetings for care planning
Finally, Anna put forward to attendees the all-important question: “What are you going to do differently following today?”
Summary
The day generated a huge amount of thought proving discussion and made it clear that there is a lot of health and social care organisations need to build on to improve the experiences of Autistic Inpatients in clinical settings. The advocacy sector also has a way to go in making sure that the services provided are truly person-centred to meet the needs of each autistic person and break down some of the barriers they encounter in accessing support. What was clear throughout the day though, is that there is a real commitment and dedication from the sector to improve.
The chances are that you are someone, know someone, or have loved someone who is neurodivergent. We think it is important to recognise that autistic people can see and experience the world differently to those who are neurotypical. It is our responsibility to see things from their side, and to step into their world and see things from their perspective.
We would like to thank everyone who attended, you have taken the first step towards action and will make a real difference to the experience of autistic people.
We are pleased to announce that we will be delivering the St Helens Adults Advocacy Hub from the 1st April 2023.
Advocacy Focus already provides the Children’s Rights, Advocacy and Independent Visitor service in St Helens, which means we can now provide seamless advocacy support to people of all ages. The service will be known as ‘The All-Age Advocacy Hub’, as we will be able to follow the people of St Helens through all stages of life, without having to pass people on to different services or providers for their support needs. This will be especially beneficial to young adults who transition from Children’s Social Care to Adult Social Care. It will allow them to be supported by advocates who are familiar to them and already know the issues they are facing.
So, what does this mean for St Helens? We will be delivering a range of non-statutory and statutory advocacy to ensure as many people are able to get the support they need. We have a team of multi-skilled Independent Advocates who can support people across all statutory advocacy provisions. This allows for a person-led service, and no matter what the issue or strand of advocacy people need, we have someone on the team who is equipped and ready to support.
As part of our extended offer, we will also provide student placements, work experience programmes, apprenticeships, and volunteering opportunities. This will help us to sustain and deliver meaningful services and provide unique opportunities for the residents of St Helens that are seeking employment or want to get involved at a community level.
At Advocacy Focus our starting point is always self-advocacy and helping people to become their own best advocate. We know that people are the experts in their own lives and we help support them to live the lives they want to live. Therefore, to give the people of St Helens the best possible chance of being seen, heard and listened to when it comes to making important decisions about their lives; we will be providing free training, tools and resources via our website: www.advocacyfocus.org.uk
“We already have a brilliant working relationship with the people and professionals of St Helens and cannot wait to provide a seamless all age advocacy hub, for all the communities’ advocacy needs. Advocacy Focus has been providing high quality advocacy for over 25 years and we are passionate about positive outcomes for people going through challenging health and social care matters. We are a free and independent service, and we are on your side. We cannot wait to extend our services in St Helens and help anyone we work with to achieve the life outcomes they are hoping for.”
Comments Off on Advocacy Focus successfully secure Salford Children’s Rights, Advocacy and Independent Visitors contract.
We are delighted to announce that we have successfully secured the Salford Children’s Rights, Advocacy and Independent Visitors contract. The service will launch on the 1st April 2023 and will run for the next five years. Our Advocates and Independent Visitors cannot wait to work with the children and young people of Salford.
Advocacy Focus will provide support to children and young people who are known to Childrens Social Care. For these children, it can feel like decisions are being made about them, without them, but Advocacy Focus will be there to make sure that important decisions are being made in partnership with children and young people. Advocacy helps people to understand their rights, put forward their views and wishes, and explore the different options that are open to them.
As part of the bidding process, Salford Childrens Social Care worked with children and young people to identify and select the best organisation to support them. Which makes our team particularly proud to win this contract and deliver meaningful advocacy for the children and young people of Salford. Our team of Advocates will help put the power back into the hands of young people, promote their voice when they feel unheard, and help them to understand their situation.
We also promise to offer wider benefits for the children and young people of Salford. We will be going into schools to support careers advice and talk to young people about working in the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors and helping them to prepare for their next steps.
So committed are we to increasing the life choices of young people leaving care, we will be ensuring that those using our service can seek support from someone with lived experience. That’s why we have pledged to offer two Salford care leavers an apprenticeship with Advocacy Focus, so that they can help others make sense of their situation. We will also provide business placement opportunities for young people with additional needs to help them begin their journey into the world of work.
It is essential that children and young people in care are supported by someone independent from health and social care services. Advocacy Focus has been delivering advocacy services for 25 years and we know that the more we help young people to be their own best advocate, the better chance they will have as adults to live independently and thrive.
“We’re delighted to be chosen as the new provider for Salford Children’s Rights, Advocacy, and Independent Visitor Service, especially as the children and young people of Salford were involved in the selection process. We cannot wait to deliver our services and work with children and young people in Childrens Social Care and help them to achieve better life outcomes, whatever they may be facing or dealing with. Advocacy is all about being seen, heard and listened to and our service will do just that for the young people of Salford, helping them stay in control of their own lives.”
Comments Off on Advocacy Focus Once Again Wins QPM Award!
The Quality Performance Mark (QPM) is the only quality mark for organisations that deliver Independent Advocacy. The National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi) is responsible for assessing and awarding organisations with QPM status. Being awarded the QPM is confirmation that an organisation is delivering the gold standard of advocacy- you are amongst the crème de la crème of advocacy services. It is widely recognised and respected across the advocacy sector. It demonstrates that an organisation is delivering advocacy in line with the Advocacy Charter. Here at Advocacy Focus we pride ourselves on quality, so much so it is included as one of our organisation’s core values. So, achieving QPM status is a huge deal for us!
The purpose of a QPM assessment is to make sure that our advocacy policies are up to date, we are following best practice, and all our delivery is in line with the QPM standards that are required to gain and hold the award. The QPM assessment gives us an opportunity to showcase to an industry expert all the work that we do, who then examines how we are delivering our advocacy services in line with the QPM standards and the Advocacy Charter. We’re then given useful feedback that we can use to shape and develop our services further.
We have proudly held QPM for many years, and every 3 years we undergo further assessment to hold our QPM status, which ensures that we continue to meet the standard. We recently underwent our assessment for QPM once again and are happy to confirm that we achieved our QPM status once more!
Some of the glowing feedback from NDTi demonstrates exactly how we are delivering quality advocacy services in line with the principles of the Advocacy Charter:
Clarity of Purpose – “Advocates had an impressive understanding of the importance of being clear about their roles, remits, and professional boundaries and how to communicate the purpose of advocacy to people who use their services and to professionals. They were clear about the purpose of all the types of advocacy they offer. This was reflected throughout the organisation.”
Independence – “Advocates and Mangers clearly prioritise their independence from service providers, funders, commissioners, and other stakeholders. They gave excellent examples of how they maintain their independence in practice and how important it is to demonstrate independence to people who use their services.”
Person-led and empowerment – “This is an outstanding area of good practice. Advocacy Focus supports self-advocacy with toolkits and other resources, such as the Justice for LB Toolkit available on the website. Advocates were clear about ways in which they work in a person-centred way and how they support people to get their voices heard. Advocacy Focus has co-produced excellent easy read guides and documents. There was a clear commitment to encouraging self-advocacy wherever possible. Advocacy Focus has a commitment to learning from people who use the services, for example using feedback from its RPR service to create a new RPR fact sheet.”
Accessibility – “Easy read options and a very clear website ensure that services are accessible, along with use of translations and interpreters when needed. The website has an excellent video: ‘What is advocacy and how can we help you to self-advocate?”
Supporting Advocates – “This is another outstanding area of excellence at Advocacy Focus. Staff report feeling very well supported and staff wellbeing is clearly prioritised. There is an open, trusting culture of honesty, peer support, managerial support, enquiry and reflection, teamwork, personal and organisational development. Staff reported manageable workloads, autonomy, and good communication. Staff and volunteers appreciate outstanding and positive leadership around wellbeing.”
As part of the assessment process the QPM assessor speaks to people who have worked closely with Advocacy Focus, including people our Independent Advocates have supported, and external professionals in the health and social care sector. Some of the wonderful feedback we received from our stakeholders included:
“My advocate understood my needs and wishes, we had rapport straight away…I’d still be there now if it wasn’t for them. There’s nothing they could have done better, she was superb. The outcome was exactly what I wanted, largely due to the advocate.” – Person who has used services
“She had a lovely manner, very skilled, very person centred.” – Person who has used services
“I could always get in touch (with the advocate), messages were always passed on and responded to. The whole services was excellent, really welcoming, nothing was too much trouble.” – Person who has used services
“(The advocate was) helpful, listened to me and what I was dealing with, help with paperwork, even though the outcome was not what I wanted, her help was phenomenal, she went above and beyond. The advocate and the company, no-one else has ever helped me like that.” – Person who has used services.
“They provide a very clear voice for the individual, their reports are very thorough with detailed evidence of what the person is saying, next steps and any action.” – Health and social care professional
“Advocates create and maintain positive working relationships whilst also being very forceful on the side of the child or young person they are working with.”– Health and social care professional
“The quality of their reports is excellent. They are like a dog with a bone, they are persistent… I have confidence that they do the job properly, they know DOLS inside out. They have the confidence to challenge where they need to. 10 out of 10.”– Health and social care professional
Hearing feedback like this makes us so proud to have an amazing team who are dedicated to going above and beyond to deliver quality advocacy worthy of the QPM award. Here’s to another 3 years of being a QPM awarded advocacy provider!
We are completely humbled by the glowing assessment, and we have big plans for the charity over the next three years, with a continued commitment to young people and adults across the North, helping people live the lives they want to live!
I’m no stranger to the whole grief thing. Losing my Mum earlier this year wasn’t my first rodeo. I lost my son, Joshua, when I was eight months pregnant. Delivering a baby that I’d lost in the room of a maternity unit filled with happy, healthy babies. Surrounded by delighted mums and dads and balloons announcing the joyful arrivals. So I have shared a bed with grief before and never really left its sheets. When my Mum became unwell and received a diagnosis of dementia in about 2008, I knew – or so I thought – how it would play out, as my Grandma had succumbed to dementia and I’d witnessed her significant and speedy decline through a teenage lens. So I figured I was equipped to deal with my Mum travelling a similar path. I wasn’t.
After a couple of years of being cared for at home and reaching the point where hers and my younger brother’s dignity, as he cared for her, were at risk of being compromised, we moved her into a care home. Within a month she was non-verbal. The only sounds she made for several years were counting, mumbling and the odd chuckle. Followed by years and years of nothing. Just silence. Mum’s day reduced to eat, sleep, silence, repeat, which went on for over a decade.
And so the grief begins. A living grief. A decade in which Mother’s Days, birthdays and Christmas’ come and go and you supress your feelings of loss as you watch other people out and about with their fully capacitous Mum, living life together and sharing important moments. Whilst you’re in a period of mourning for the person, who is alive, but not living. Disappearing in front of your very eyes, piece by piece. The person you love reduced to a mere shadow of their former self. A body ravaged by the cruellest of conditions.
Whilst life is going on all around you, you begin to prepare yourself for her demise. Planning a ‘good send-off’, thinking about who will still remember her after being out of circulation for so long. What to put in her eulogy as your last act of love. And practical things like what type of coffin you will buy (Banana leaf by the way, understated, beautiful, natural. Just like her.) You convince yourself that her death is just a formality, an end point. That the day will come, she will die and you will be silently relieved that she is no longer trapped inside a body that doesn’t work anymore without daily support and nursing intervention. That her suffering has ended. Because for years and years and years, you have wondered if she is calm and at peace inside her own silent world, or whether she is confused, scared and silently screaming for it all to end.
Then the day dawns. The phone rings in the early hours one Sunday morning and you hear the words ‘I’m sorry Justine, your Mum has died.’ Seven every day words ending 14 years of limbo. Relief would surely follow wouldn’t it? Our family had closure now, did it not? We could finally get round to the send off we had all thought about, but never talked about, over the years. Then suddenly it hits you. The Real Grief. Pain that has been bottled up tightly inside you for so long. The last 14 years were, you discover, merely a dress rehearsal. This was the final act.
So this year Christmas is less ho, ho, ho and more no, no, no. There’s no tree up, my halls aren’t decked with holly and it’s a Christmas song-free zone. Christmas cheer is in short supply, because I’m grieving and I miss my Mum to my very core. So I’m going to ride the grief wave and brace myself for the unpredictability of the sucker punch it delivers when you least expect it. When you hear a certain song, or a memory is triggered, or you remember that she is no longer there. Because as the saying goes ‘grief is the price we pay for love’, and boy did I love her.
But dementia, dementia can do one.
For Mum.
If you are struggling with feelings of grief or loss, Christmas can be a really difficult time. If you need some help or support to process your feelings, we have a free download that may help you make sense of things, which you can find here https://advocacyfocus.org.uk/becoming-your-healthy-self/
If your grief or loss is making you very unwell or you are struggling to cope over the holiday period, then you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123. If you need someone to talk to, they will listen and not judge. Or go to A&E and seek the help you need. Grief and loss are unpredictable and it is different for everyone. Speak to someone who can help you through it.
In this blog post we will explore why advocacy is so important, but first, we need to explore what advocacy actually is…
Every person will describe advocacy in their own way, some might have a technical definition based on legislation and codes of practice, self-advocates would describe it as the thing that got their voices heard. At Advocacy Focus, we like to describe advocacy as supporting somebody to speak up and be listened to, ensuring their views, wishes, and feelings are heard and taken seriously. Advocacy helps people become more involved in important decisions about their life and it can be a lifeline for many.
Advocates help people understand their rights, their options and support individuals to make an informed decision. We help people live the lives they want to live!
So why is this important, we hear you asking!
The recent exposure of the abuse occurring at the Edenfield Centre, a mental health hospital, hit the news in September 2022 after a Panorama show aired. This documentary saw patients being subjected to long seclusions, being victims of physical and emotional abuse amongst other abhorrent behaviour by the hospital staff. Advocacy exists to protect the rights of people and acts as an additional safeguard to patients. Advocates are by the persons side, on their side, we support people to understand their rights under their sections and helping amplify their voices and involvement in decisions made about their care and treatment.
Today marks the start of Advocacy Awareness Week, a campaign that this year is focusing on promoting Human Rights. Each day this week will promote a different Human Right, and today’s is the Right to Life. The Human Right that safeguards us from neglect or abuse in care settings, like those at Edenfield were subjected to.
Advocacy is of utmost importance to protect the rights of people who may otherwise be dismissed or ignored. Advocates are often the only independent support that people receive in some of the most challenging moments in their life – so we must continue to promote advocacy services all over the country. We often find that people in hospital are completely unaware of their rights and often feel lost, confused, and scared. Information and self-help tools can be a lifeline for people feeling out of control when it comes to their care and treatment. Today we want to promote our free toolkits so that people know they’re not alone and there is help available.
Sometimes tools are not enough, and that’s okay, Advocacy is here for you, by your side and on your side. If you need help finding your local advocacy service we can help, you are not alone.
Together, we can prevent more people from enduring the abuse and neglect. Together, we can help people live the lives they want to live.
Are you interested in becoming a Trustee of a leading advocacy charity and Top Employer in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index, 2022? We are especially keen to hear from people within underrepresented groups.
Over 12 months we supported 6381 people with complex advocacy issues.
What skills could you help us with?
Lived experience of advocacy or health and social care issues
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Fundraising and business development
Local government policy and procurement
Who we are:
We have provided person-led advocacy across the North of England since 1998
Our advocates support people to understand their rights, options and enable people to make informed decisions about their health and social care.
Simply put: we help people live the lives they want to live.
If you are interested in becoming a Trustee or would like more information, please email admin@advocacyfocus.org.uk
