Advocacy is a way of empowering people to speak for themselves, express their views and enforce their rights. Our overall objective as Formal Mental Health Advocates is to ensure that service users understand the mental health system and their rights within it. We are instructed by our clients and give them information to help them understand the options they have in their individual situation. We do not impose our views and opinions upon them nor do we use our interpretation of their views and needs if we speak for them. The aim is for people to speak for themselves and for us to support them in formal professional situations to get their views on their care heard.

Advocates are trained and experienced people, who work either as voluntary or as paid workers, these involve people making their own informed choices when they can, and to protect their rights, dignity, interests at all times.

People particularly need advocacy when they are disbelieved, discounted, devalued and discriminated against as people with serious mental health problems often are.

Advocates do not take a deliberately adversarial stance, but neither do they seek to avoid confrontation and challenges when these are necessary. They seek to practice principled negotiation.

Necessary Quality/Skills of a good advocate:

•  Empathy and equity in the patient/advocate relationship.

•  Honesty, sensitivity and discretion

•  Patients and perseverance

•  Energy and Commitment to Empowerment of users

•  A recognised independent agent

•  A good interested listener

•  A good communicator

•  Able to translate it into understanding language

•  Reliable and accurate witness

•  A seeker and provider of balanced information

•  Protestor for and protector of Human Rights

Definitions of Models of Advocacy:

There are a number of different models of advocacy relating the specific needs of the individual client.

•  Legal Advocacy – is where the service user is represented by a legally qualified advocate, more often than not a solicitor.

E.g Peter Edwards Law 0151 632 6699

•  Citizen Advocacy – this is a long term, one to one partnership between a user and an advocate usually as part of a co-ordinated scheme with paid co-ordinator and volunteer partners. This is more common in the learning disability field and in the mental health field, however the two can overlap.

E.g Liverpool Citizens Advocacy 0151 707 4318

•  Formal Advocacy – this usually refers to schemes run by voluntary groups which are not by and large user led. These schemes sometimes refer to them selves as professional advocates. Co-ordinators are salaried and often advocates are paid. They tend to adopt an expert model advocacy which involves the giving advice, prioritising options, counselling and mediation. They often act for both carers and service users.

The Advocacy Project 0151 709 9442

•  Peer Advocacy – this is support from advocates who themselves use or have used mental health services. Peer advocates may be part of a service user run group who provide an independent advocacy in mental health unit and /or in the community.

The Advocacy Project 0151 709 9442

•  Self Advocacy – this involves people speaking out for themselves which is the express goal of many citizens or peer advocacy projects.

Using a "formal model" of advocacy the Advocacy Project is independant of any agencies, and its constitution reflects the importance of maintaining its autonomy.

The organisation endeavours to address the needs of our culturally diverse communities within the Liverpool area, along with providing a 'Community based' service which supports and encourages black people to challenge inappropriate practices and treatment within the mental health system.

The Advocacy Project is actively engaged in:

•  Raising awareness of health and social care professionals and those in the voluntary and private care sector of the needs of our client group

•  Developing the confidence of black people experiencing mental distress to know their rights in other areas such as legal representation, housing and welfare benefits

•  Promotion of self advocacy to empower individuals to challenge treatments / practices they find unacceptable and to develop a network of self advocacy within the community

•  Providing training to both mental health service users and staff members on our Peer Advocacy Training Programme with certification

•  Representation at managers' appeals, ECC meetings, ward rounds, Mental Health Review Tribunals (MHRT) under the guidelines of the Mental Health Act (1983)

•  Act as appropriate adult at police stations

•  Accessing second medical opinion (trans-cultural psychiatry)

•  Promotion of user participation/employment within mental health service provisions

•  Consultation and training provider to other agencies involved in mental health care

•  Work in collaboration with other service providers for the benefit of our client group

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