ADVOCACY

I wanted to speak about how child Advocacy has impacted on my family.
My son is 10yrs old with a diagnosis of Autism, he is a non-verbal child and has severe social and communication difficulties.
We felt Joshua having the right to an Advocate was crucial in promoting his rights to have a voice ensuring services/provision were made available to him, that said it was also important that the right services/provision and any decision making were offered to Joshua taking into account his disability.
His advocate had a role which was a difficult one in understanding what was the best interests for Joshua due to his in-capacity to speak for himself, what was meaningful to him, what he would/would not like, his interests, what he could/could not tolerate with regards to his Autism and how services should be delivered.
A relational advocacy service was implemented with great effectiveness, this involved her using a specialist technique approach, called Intensive Interaction.
This form of Interaction formed a very unique relationship, allowing the Advocate to engage with my son with what was meaningful to him, allowing her into his world, sharing expieriences and gain good in-depth knowledge of my son, how his Autism affected him in behavioural, social, emotional, envoironmental situations etc.  But more importantly understanding how he would want things to happen.
By forming this relationship the Advocate could envisage what his needs consisted of, how certain situations, decisions making would affect him, allowing her to speak on his behalf.
It is also very re-assuring for as parents to know that our child as a right to be heard, regardless of any other persons view.  Parents often speak on their childs behalf but we found having a Independant Advocate very em-powering for my son.
I have been extremely pleased and grateful in the role of the advocate, I feel confident that the advocate knows the child very well and this enables her to speak for the best interests of my son.
Many issues have been addressed such as Educational provision, Respite Provision, decision making, assessments/strategies, implementation of meaningful resources etc.

- Debbie Ryan, Blackburn UK

Advocacy has definitely helped our patients make decisions about their care, many of our patients needed support to get their views across as they lacked confidence. Working with an advocate has enabled our patients to develop their own opinions, aspirations and confidence.  The majority of our patients who initially required maximum support in ward rounds and other meetings are now able to speak with confidence and have developed their own advocacy skills.  The advocate speaks with them, rather than for them and continues to work extremely hard behind the scenes undertaking preparation work with each patient.

As a social worker I have worked in partnership with the advocate and established a patient's forum, this actively involves the patients and provides support, education and a voice for the patients.  All of the patient's views are then shared with the Multi-disciplinary team who share responsability for effecting change and maintaining excellence.

Having an independant advocate has promoted independance, increased control and improved the quality of life for our patients.

- Mental Health Social Worker

I have known Jan in a professional capacity for over 2 years.  I have worked jointly with her both during her time at a therapeutic respite facility and latterly as an independent practitioner.

Jan is a practitioner of the highest integrity.  She is able to maintain the needs of children and their families at the heart of her assessments and interventions in a truly person centred way.  Jan is also able to seperate out differences in needs between a child and their family as often the two do not coincide easily.

Jan has a strong commitment to the needs of children who are complex and strives to ensure their voice is heard and taken into account.

I have found jan to be highly professional in all her dealings with agencies.  She is honest and acknowledges with agencies the complexities of the situations we all work together to resolve in a manner that is helpful and helps complex situations move forwared.

Jan's knowledge of Intensive Interaction is outstanding.  She uses this way of being with clients with severe limitations to their communication to good effect to get to know them and represent their experience to others.

Jan also has a good understanding of the Sensory Integration difficulties children with complex needs experience.  Jan can offer understanding of a child based on this model and effective advice to help them.

Jan has a good knowledge of the agency system and will involve other professionals as appropriate and liaise with them accordingly.

 - Child Psychologist

ADVOCACY AND VALUE TO THE INDEPENDENT PROVIDER

The private sector has long struggled to counteract the negative views sometimes held with regard to its motives.  As a business we have to be seen to return on our financial investments.

Quite simply, our independent advocacy service is a significant part of such investment.  The service provided to us goes to the core of mental health - that is, preventing people with mental health problems from being excluded from their communities.

More recently, due to legislation changes, the advocacy movement has taken great steps forward and in the future, competent advocacy will contribute to sweeping changes in mental health policy.  It makes a lot of sense for the independent provider to incorporate this initiative into its business.

Pragmatically, I find this service really "does what it says on the tin" - it adopts a stakeholder sense of direction.  In Regency Lodge Blackpool and Heswall, these stakeholders include:

• Patients
• Staff
• Relatives and carers
• Purchasers and commissioners

The prime focus though is on the patients.  The advocates channel rather then filter patients' concerns.  They are pro-active and this reassures the company that the patient view of treatment and the quality of the care programme meets with our objects.

Confidentiality is respected and the advocacy service is able to respond to the diverse issues that affect both the quality of rehabilitation and the requirements of transparent governance in the private sector.

So, in a nutshell, the advocacy service does not have any conflict of interest.  Their independence does not mean that they are correct all of the time.  The advocate does not see herself as more virtuous than the front-line workers, she just becomes involved from a different place and views things from a different perspective.

 - Tony Thompson

 - Executive Director of Nursing and Governance

 - Regency Lodge

COMMISSIONED SERVICES

Our son Liam has autism and is a very complex child.  One or more of his senses are either over or under reactive to stimulation and he experiences difficulties in sensory processing which leads to sensory overload and then fragmentation.  During the summer break from school, Liam had become so distressed that he cut his forehead by banging it against the bathroom window. At this point social services were called in to help.  They commissioned Wadsworth & Cook to provide both Liam and the family with support sessions in relation to behaviour management. 

From the initial time spent observing Liam and assessing his needs, support in the home and telephone advice continued at a high level over the following two weeks.  Successful stratergies were put in place to reduce the stress levels which helped Liam to help process what was happening now, next and so on.  Other stratergies were implemented to give Liam more space in the home away from his younger sisters and to have an area which was his. 

The introduction to the above allowed Liam to de-stress and therefore enabled him to process at his usual level.  It also allowed we as parents a routine we desperately needed for us to also regain control of everyday life.

To this day those stratergies are still in place with continued support.  

 - Ian Yates, Blackburn UK.