Advocacy means to speak up for someone. Most of us at sometime in our lives speak up for others or hope that someone will speak up for us when we need support.
There are some groups of people who may need more help than others. This is particularly the case for people with learning disabilities because they are at risk of being ignored. Sometimes we have lots of problems understanding what they are trying to tell us if they do not use words.
Advocacy is about making things change because people’s voices are heard and listened to.
It’s about making sure that people can make their own choices in life and have the chance to be as independent as they want to be.
With independent advocacy it is about another person (an advocate) making sure that a person with a learning disability is not being ignored because they need some help to make sure that they are heard. Advocacy is about putting a person back in control of their own life.
What an advocate does
- An advocate works to make things happen and change.
- An advocate helps people to make choices and take more control of their own life.
- An advocate works for everyone to have equal rights.
- An advocate tries to make sure that people with a learning disability are not left out and lonely. They should have the same chances as everybody else to be included in their community.
- An advocate helps people to say what they want and makes sure that the voice is listened to and answered.
What an advocate does not do
- An advocate is not a referee in a dispute or argument.
- An advocate does not take the control away from the person they are advocating for by persuading them into his/her way of thinking.
- An advocate does not take over the role of a Social worker or a nurse or a care worker either, or make up for gaps in services that should be provided. There is no right kind of advocacy and there are many different ways it can be offered.
People are very different and may need different types of advocacy at different times in their lives. We need to make sure that there is choice that suits the differences of the people who want what advocacy has to offer. In that way they will gain the most from it.
What is common to all types of advocacy is that the person who it is for (in this instance the person with a learning disability) is always at the centre of the advocacy process. It is all about what that person wants, and finding the best way of getting that across to the people who need to know.
Advocacy can be like tools in a tool box, the different types can be used together or separately depending on the job that needs to be done.
Types of advocacy
All people are very different from each other. Their needs for support are different, and may change during their life. A variety of advocacy has developed to recognise these differences:
All advocacy types are of equal value. What advocacy is used, and when, should depend on what is best suited to the person who seeks it. A single person may ask for different types of advocacy support at different times in their life.
What is common to all types of advocacy is that the person who it is for (in this instance the person with a learning disability) is always at the centre of the advocacy process. It is all about what that person wants, and finding the best way of getting that across to the people who need to know.
Advocacy can be like tools in a tool box, the different types can be used together or separately depending on the job that needs to be done.
Self advocacy
This is speaking up for yourself. It is what most of us do most of the time. It is the best kind of advocacy where people feel able and willing to do so. This should always be worked towards.
Many people with learning disabilities are good at speaking up for themselves. Sometimes they find it hard to get others to accept this or to listen to them.
Self advocacy groups are a good way of encouraging this. They are run by people with learning disabilities who sometimes have supporters. Self advocacy groups are often groups of people who use services or have the same interests locally. They work together to make sure they have a say in how those services are run. They are a very good way for people to support each other and they can help to build confidence so that people feel more able to speak up for themselves.
Peer advocacy
This is when the advocate and the advocacy partner share similar experiences or environments. This happens for example between children who may live together in a children’s home, those experiencing mental ill health and those with a learning disability. It sometimes means that people who have experienced the same things feel they have a better understanding and can be more supportive.
Peer advocacy happened in the past between people with learning disabilities when they were separated from others and lived in isolated hospitals. They often only had each other for company and were away from others in the community. There was no one else to speak up for them other than their fellow residents. As people with learning disabilities began to learn more about the rights and obligations of citizenship, more of them are speaking up for each other.
This is often like citizen advocacy with both partners having a learning disability and is mostly of an informal nature.
Paid independent or professional advocacy (formal)
This can often be called crisis, issues based or case advocacy. It usually means that it is advocacy with clear outcomes and targets and the advocacy input finishes when the outcomes have been met. This advocacy can be undertaken by volunteers or paid members of local independent advocacy scheme staff or by individual paid consultant advocates.
Key points about this sort of advocacy are:
- It is temporary, and does not involve a long term commitment
- It has clear targets
- It can bring in advocates with special knowledge or experience around the issues that need to be addressed
- Advocates mostly have a number of people they support at any one time
Some service providers such as social services or NHS Care Trusts may pay advocacy schemes to provide this type of advocacy on a contract basis. They may also pay independent consultants to provide advocacy when certain situations arise.
Citizen advocacy
This is a partnership between two people. To try to make things clear, one is usually called the advocacy partner, and one the citizen advocate. An advocacy partner is someone at risk of having choices, wishes and decisions ignored, and who needs help in making them known and making sure they are responded to. A citizen advocate is a person who volunteers to speak up for and support an advocacy partner and is not paid to do so.
Key points about citizen advocacy are:
- The citizen advocate is unpaid and independent of service providers and families and is a member of the local community
- The advocacy partnership is one to one and the advocate’s loyalty is to the advocacy partner alone
- The advocacy relationship is based on trust and confidentiality
- The citizen advocate identifies the partner’s choices and decisions, but does not make or influence them
- The partnership is long term and not time limited and lasts for as long as both partners want it to
- An advocacy scheme “matches” the advocate and partner