Advocacy Service

What is Advocacy?

Advocacy is a partnership in which one person represents the interests and concerns of another person as if they were their own.

Advocacy can mean someone being more independent, knowing their rights and choices and having more of a say in the decisions that affect them.

Why is Advocacy needed?

People suffering mental ill health or emotional distress may find it hard to articulate their needs and wishes. People can feel powerless, alone and unable to get the help they need and to which they are entitled.

Bath Mind Advocacy Service exists to help and support people in Bath and North East Somerset so that they can communicate their needs and make informed choices about decisions which directly affect the quality of their lives. Carers can also have support from the service, as can older people and people with dementia (see Advocacy for Older People page).

The service has the Community Legal Service Quality Mark for Disability Case Work and is audited by the Legal Services Commission.

What do Advocates Do?

Our advocates can represent people directly but we encourage self advocacy by giving people the necessary help and support to represent themselves more effectively.

Some of the issues our advocates can help with are:

• Getting more information about treatment
• Preparation for and support at ICPA and other formal meetings
• Making complaints
• General information and signposting
• Information on the Mental Health Act
• Accessing services
• Dealing with other mental health professionals and other agencies, like housing, social services etc
• Welfare rights and benefits – particularly DLA applications and appeals
• Discrimination issues
• General Legal issues
• Protecting vulnerable adults from exploitation and abuse.

What can be expected of an advocate?

• Concerned about the rights of people with mental health problems
• Empathic and a good listener
• Able to communicate with a range of people
• Respectful of other people's views
• Reliable, trustworthy and honest
• Committed to promoting the cause of the people they work with

Are Advocates trained?

All our advocates will have completed an accredited specialized advocacy training course and many have relevant expertise and qualifications in related areas. Many of our advocates will also have relevant life experiences including having been users of mental health services themselves. All our volunteers receive regular supervision and are police checked. The advocacy service is regularly monitored and audited.

Courses

For details of our next training course please ring 01225 464656 (see also: Volunteering).

We encourage applications from people who have themselves used the mental health services. We are also actively seeking black and ethnic minority advocates.

What will happen after asking for Advocacy support?

The service is "issue based" which means that when someone comes to us for help with a particular problem, we allocate an advocate will end once the problem has been resolved. Depending on the situation this can take between one hour or several months.

People will often have more than one issue that they need help with, which can be dealt with simultaneously. It is also common for people to return and use the service number of occasions.