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Where people have their own voice advocacy means making sure they are heard; where they have difficulty speaking up it means providing help; where they have no voice it means speaking up for them - Herbert and Mould (1992)'The Advocacy Role in Public Child Welfare'

What is an independent advocacy service? 

Advocacy Orkney supports people who are vulnerable and may experience difficulty making their views and wishes heard by others. Those ‘others’ may be professionals like doctors, carers, council officials etc but may include relatives or anyone else you don’t feel is listening to your point of view.

What kind of things can an advocacy service help me with? 

An advocacy service, like Advocacy Orkney, can support you to sort out all kinds of issues including: 

ü      How to get help with benefit problems 

ü      How to obtain legal advice 

ü      Your health, treatment and the support you are receiving

ü      Your rights within various 'systems' e.g. the mental health system, the

     community care system, the child protection system

ü      Housing or accommodation problems

ü      Conflicts with other people e.g. a carer, a neighbour, a doctor, a solicitor

ü      Work, education or other activities

ü      Anything else that may be bothering you 

In a residential setting like a hospital or a home for the elderly, an advocacy service, like Advocacy Orkney, can work with professionals to make sure that patients are involved in and consulted on all aspects of their care and treatment.  

Advocates from the advocacy service can help with:

 

ü      Everyday problems occurring within the hospital/home, such as staff shortages or the withdrawal of other services patients/residents receive

ü      Issues to do with their treatment and discharge

ü      Legal liaison - helping people get legal advice and representation to deal with personal difficulties

ü      Arranging meetings with staff and legal representatives

ü      Preparation for case conferences and review meetings with care managers, consultants, key nurses/key workers

ü      Representation at Mental Health Tribunals

 

Vulnerability 

Unfortunately, due to the limited amount of funding we receive we cannot offer our service to everyone. In order that our support is given where it is most needed we only provide support to people considered to be vulnerable. The Co-ordinator will meet with anyone who wishes to make use of our service and the issue of vulnerability will be discussed. The following list gives an indication of the groups of people that we will always consider for support but don’t worry if you think you don’t fall into any of the categories, we will look at your circumstances and where it is not appropriate for Advocacy Orkney to support you we will, with your permission, refer you to other agencies: 

·        Physically disability

·        Learning disability

·        Mental ill-health

·        Dementia

·        Elderly

·        Parents of children with additional support needs

·        Parents of children in the care system

·        People with negative reputations

·        People who are alcohol or drug dependent

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