Author Archives: Kim Walsh

  1. Excellence secured at the Selnet Awards!

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    Like Selnet, we believe that training is a crucial element of many Social Enterprises and this category recognises organisations that strive to ensure their staff or volunteers receive a high standard of training.

    What judges looked for:

    – Scale and relevance of training provision

    – The improvement or difference this makes to participants

    – Recognised quality of provision

    Why we won:

    Advocacy Focus prides itself on having high skilled and dedicated staff. We invest in our team as a whole including our Advocacy Managers and our Independent Advocates. It was our Volunteer training that particularly caught the eye of the judges for this award.

    Our Volunteer Manager recruits, trains and mentors volunteers across Lancashire to add extra added value to our service, allowing us to provide additional support to those with ill mental health, who lack capacity or have learning or sensory disabilities.

    The  judges were impressed with the personal approach that Lauren takes for every volunteer to ensure that they achieve personal goals, as well as contributing to the organisation of the charity as a whole as our volunteer team includes our Peer Advocates who have experience of ill mental health themselves.

    Lauren spends time individually mentoring each volunteer, alongside training them in a group setting. Each volunteer receives an Individual Learning Plan so that our Volunteer Manager can support them to achieve their goals such as gaining interview and employability skill and building confidence and self-esteem.

    In addition, the comprehensive and rolling programme of training that our volunteers receive was also mentioned as a key reason for the award win and includes:

    • A Foundation Course in Advocacy
    • Self-Advocacy Training
    • How to make a Health and Social Care Complaint
    • Training around the Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act and Care Act in order to enable them to support members of the community.

    Justine Hodgkinson, CEO of Advocacy Focus said, “Our nomination focused on the excellent work that Lauren has developed in her role and the strong induction, training and mentoring the volunteers receive as part of our team. It is phenomenal to receive this recognition for Lauren, the volunteers, our team and Advocacy Focus as a whole and it really demonstrates the important role that volunteers play here at Advocacy Focus.” To read more about the Selnet awards and winners of each category, visit http://selnet-uk.com/enterprise-in-society-awards-2017/

  2. Pendle Hill conquered in aid of mental health and well-being

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    Why you ask, would we brave bumping into any remaining witches, so close to Halloween?

    Well… we conquered the 360m ascent to help us reflect on the daily up-hill mountain that our services users often face and to raise money for us to extend our advocacy services to vulnerable individuals in the local community.

    So, after a quick morning cup of coffee and with our friends from BNI Diamond Chapter, Preston, a team of 25 set off from the carpark in high spirits.

    The going was fairly easy (at first) and we stopped to admire the view at Lower Ogden Reservoir.

    At the impressive dam wall, we headed up the right hand side on a rough path to reach the Upper Ogden Reservoir.  We followed this higher path through the valley and even crossed over the Boar Clough stream!

    Following the marker stones for the route of the Pendle Way, after crossing the stream we turned right and ascended steeply north on the rough path up the shoulder of Boar Clough.

    After a quick pit stop, our thoughts tuned to our ultimate end goal, ‘the summit of Pendle Hill’ known as Beacon End or Big End. We continued on (through the mud!) and reached the summit where we found an OS trig point pillar sat on an impressive circular stone cairn.

    We were at a height of 557m above sea level and took in the spectacular view where apparently on clear day you can see the Peak District, Yorkshire Dales, Morecambe Bay, the Forest of Bowland and of course the sprawling Lancashire mill towns.

    After congratulating ourselves on our achievement of reaching the top, we then realised that we were only in fact halfway!  It was time for our rocky descent and headed for the picturesque village of Barley which was a great place to finish the walk.

    Overall a brilliant experience and every one of us experienced highs and lows and then ultimately a great sense of achievement.

    We thank everyone for their sponsorship.  See you there next year???

  3. Our Advocacy Service is classed as ‘Outstanding’ at the National Advocacy Awards 2016

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    The National Advocacy Awards celebrates outstanding people, organisations and practice in the field of Independent Advocacy. The ‘Outstanding Service’ category recognises services that are making a difference locally by providing creative and innovative ways of evolving their support. Katrina Kelly, Service Delivery Director at Advocacy Focus has always maintained that her committed team of Senior Advocates and Advocates is top class, but now the recognition at a national level and beating off stiff competition just goes to prove it.

    Advocacy Focus’s winning strand of advocacy is based on our IMHA activities following the publication of ‘A Right to be Heard. We worked hard with our multi-agency partners to establish a new ‘opt out’ policy.

    In addition to tackling the real life hurdles of Information Governance, Caldicott Policies, the relocation of 19 wards to one specialist unit, and amalgamating 6 different Mental Health Act Administrators ways of working, an opt out policy for automatic referral at the point of Section was finally introduced after a long period of dedication by the team. As a result of the initiative, IMHA referrals increased by over 400% in the first year and on average we continue to work with 268 detained patients per month.

    In addition, our very own Advocate Leanne Barber was a shortlisted finalist and voted Highly Commended in the ‘Outstanding advocate’ category, which recognises people who truly make a difference to the world through their advocacy practice. Well done Leanne! The Awards Ceremony was held on October 12th in Birmingham, for more details, see http://www.advocacyawards.co.uk/

  4. Jane’s experience of Advocacy Focus

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    My sister has had mental health problems since she had meningitis as a child and the two of us have always been inseparable. As she got older my sister had to live in care homes and that’s when I feel the problems started. I felt that the staff at the care home where my sister was living were mistreating her and actually putting her in danger. I had a social worker at the time but she always seemed to be on the side of the care home staff and I thought allowed them to get away with treating my sister really badly.

    I got in touch with Advocacy Focus because I had heard about advocacy and they have been an absolute lifeline for me and my sister – nothing is too much trouble for them. They came with me when I had to attend meetings between social services and the care home and helped me to understand what was going on and to put my point across. When I’ve had to write letters trying to support my sister, my advocate helped me to say things clearly and get the message over.

    They really have been on my side all along the way and have helped me to get things sorted. At one point I was banned from seeing my sister for 9 months at the care home and that broke my heart, but Advocacy Focus helped me to get that sorted out.

    They have helped me in so many ways over the years, I really couldn’t have managed without them.”

    * the person’s name has been changed in order to protect her identity

  5. Demonstrating our support for Dementia Awareness Week

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    Dementia is set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer. But awareness and understanding remains low and many families are facing it alone.

    To play our part the awareness week, we thought we would share how we help people living with dementia through our highly skilled advocacy service.

    At Advocacy Focus, we have a vast experience of helping to give support and understanding and practical support to those living with dementia, and their families. We have 12 trained dementia friends and are in the process of training up a further 6 team members.

    Dementia is set to be the 21st century’s biggest killer. But awareness and understanding remains low and many families are facing it alone.

    To play our part the awareness week, we thought we would share how we help people living with dementia through our highly skilled advocacy service.

    At Advocacy Focus, we have a vast experience of helping to give support and understanding and practical support to those living with dementia, and their families. We have 12 trained dementia friends and are in the process of training up a further 6 team members.

    How Advocacy helped Leonard*

    Our Independent Advocate Becci recently acted as a Paid Relevant Persons Representative (RPR) for an individual who was living in a care home with no friends or family.

    Unfortunately, the Leonard was unhappy with being in the care home and would often pack his belongings and sit by the front door for long periods. 

    Becci visited him every month and, as a result of working with the client over a period of time and building up a relationship, it was discovered that the client was not happy in the care home due to not being able to go out, and there being a lot of noise coming from the resident in the room next to him, meaning he could not sleep. 

    Taking the time to listen to Leonard’s concerns meant that we could then help to address the specific concerns.

    As is our duty as the person’s representative, we take our role very seriously and we worked closely with the care home staff and the person’s Legal Power of Attorney and as a result, he has been able to visit shops in the local area, garden centres, go for walks along the lake and go to the pub. 

    We also raised Leonard’s concerns around the noise at night to staff in the care home and he was offered an alternative room in a quieter area of the home which he accepted. 

    Leonard is now very happy in the care home, is able to maintain access to the local community, and feels his new room is “top notch”. This is just one example of how we can help people, even those living with dementia to have a better quality of life and achieve the things that matter to them.

    To find out about how Advocacy can help you or someone you know, phone 0300 323 0965 or email admin@advocacyfocus.org.uk

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