| A mental health advocacy service supports people with mental health needs to speak out about their concerns, argue their case, assert their rights, express their views, and, where appropriate, make complaints.
There are other kinds of specialist advocacy services that support other vulnerable groups of people who may have problems making their views heard, such as people with learning disabilities.
Who are advocacy services for?
Mental-health advocacy services are there to support people who have long-term mental health needs or who are experiencing a mental health crisis.
Most of Together’s advocacy services are based in hospitals and other secure mental health settings, where they support people with mental health needs who have been detained by the courts under the Mental Health Act 1983. (These services are all managed and run independently of the hospital management.)
Other advocacy services in local communities are run by other voluntary organisations, such as some of those listed on our links page.
|Top| What kinds of thing can an advocacy service help me with?
An advocacy service can support you to sort out all kinds of issues, including:
- benefits
- childcare
- getting legal advice, and progress on any complaint or appeal
- your health, treatment and the support you are receiving
- your rights within the mental health system
- housing and accommodation problems
- conflicts with other people, for example a neighbour, doctor or solicitor
- work, education or other daytime activities
- anything else that may be bothering you.
In a secure mental health setting like a hospital, an advocacy service can help patients with things like:
- everyday problems occurring within the hospital, such as staff shortages or the cancellation of day services
- issues to do with treatment and detention
- legal liaison – helping people get legal advice and representation at mental health review tribunals or when dealing with other personal difficulties
- fixing up meetings with staff and legal representatives
- preparing for care programme approach (CPA) review meetings and meetings with their consultant or key nurse.
In hospitals and secure settings, advocates from the advocacy service might also:
- run advocacy clinics on wards
- attend the community meetings at which patients can raise any issues they have about their ward
- facilitate a patients’ council, to give a voice to patients at the hospital
- act as an ‘appropriate adult’, to help ensure patients understand what is happening if they are interviewed by the police or hospital inspectors
- work with other professionals to make sure that patients are involved in and consulted on all aspects of their care and treatment.
|Top| What kind of support will an advocacy service offer?
A good advocacy service offers support that is tailored to the needs of each individual who uses the service. In general, this involves:
- listening to your concerns and helping you plan how to deal with them in an appropriate and useful way
- providing information about your rights, the people and organisations you may have to deal with, and anything else that might be helpful
- helping you to write letters to or arrange appointments with any person, organisation or authority who can help
- attending meetings with you or on your behalf with, for example, social workers, psychiatrists, landlords, the police
- liaising with family and carers, community mental health teams, legal representatives and so on
- making sure that your opinions are heard and included in decisions concerning your life.
Rather than doing everything ‘for’ the people who use their service, advocacy services always try to give people the information and support they need to take the issue forward for themselves.
|Top| How does an advocacy service work?
Usually people get in touch with an advocacy service when they have a particular problem that they want support to solve. An advocate then assesses whether the service can help, and, if it can, the advocate will then work with the person to try to solve the problem.
Advocacy services in high-secure hospitals work slightly differently. The service contacts everyone automatically at certain points, such as when they first move in and before their care programme approach (CPA) review meetings. Outside of this people can also approach the service with particular issues that they need support with.
|Top| Where can I find an advocacy service?
If you are living in the community, you can find out if there is an advocacy service in your area by talking to your social worker or community mental health (psychiatric) nurse. Or you could ask someone in your community mental health team, your solicitor, local MIND group or patients’ forum to put you in touch with one. The UK Advocacy Network is an organisation that has a list of advocacy services across the country.
An advocate can usually meet you in your home, at a police station (if necessary), in their office, or anywhere else that is appropriate and convenient.
In a secure mental health setting such as a special hospital, the advocacy service should make contact with you shortly after you enter the unit.
|Top| How long can I use the service?
Each service is different. They will tell you about the support that they can give you and the circumstances in which they can help. They might be able to offer support quite intensively for a period of a few weeks or months, or occasionally on a long-term basis.
|Top| How it is funded/who pays for it?
Together’s advocacy services are funded by hospital and health trusts on behalf of their patients, and are free to the people who use them. Other advocacy services, within the community, are run by voluntary organisations such as some of those on our links page. They are usually free to the people who use them.
|Top| Who are the advocates?
Advocates come from many different backgrounds. For example, some may have worked in hospitals, or other kinds of mental health services. Others may have been in (or may currently be in) other types of job, and can offer the wisdom of valuable experience - for example on education, business or legal issues.
Some advocates are or have been service-users themselves, or are family or carers of people with mental health needs, and may therefore have a particular understanding of the situation.
All Together advocates receive specialised induction training and skills development to give them a good understanding of their role and the issues they will be dealing with.
|Top| How can I get involved in the running of the service?
In some hospitals you may be able to join a patients' council, where you could help other patients put forward their views or review the advocacy service. Most advocacy services want to ask service-users for their views about how the service has helped them or could do better – by providing feedback you can help advocates to do a better job.
Some hospitals ask service-users to monitor the performance and contract of advocacy services – so you can have a part in running the service. Other services offer training to service-users so they can become ‘peer advocates’, helping other patients to express their views and needs.
More information
Find out more about individual Together advocacy services. | 
