Advocacy

Everyone has the right to get support from another person to help express their views and wishes (for example, at a healthcare appointment). This person is called an advocate.

Advocates can be helpful if you:

• find it difficult to make your views known
• need other people to listen to you and take your views into account

What an advocate can do

An independent advocate can:

• talk to you to find out what you want and how you feel
• listen to you
• find information to help you make choices
• talk to other people or groups for you, including staff within ILF Scotland
• help you say what you think about your health care or treatment

People who are covered by the Mental health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act – who have a mental health issue, learning disability, autism or dementia – have a legal right to independent advocacy.

The role of the advocate is not restricted to mental health situations.

Finding an advocate in Scotland

You can use the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance's Find an Advocate tool to find out what independent advocacy is available in your local area. Call 0131 510 9410. You can also email enquiry@siaa.org.uk

Benefits

If you have a disability, you can get free advocacy help to apply for benefits in Scotland. Call Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222. Ask them to refer you to their independent advocacy service.

The service helps disabled people to:

• have their voice heard
• express their views
• feel understood

Carers

Carers UK offer a self-advocacy toolkit for carers, which gives advice on making your voice heard if you care for someone else. You can call Carers UK on 0141 445 3070 or email them at info@carersuk.org.

Finding an advocate in Northern Ireland

If you live in Northern Ireland the following organisations may be able to help you.

If you have suggestions for updates to this list, please email: communications@ilf.scot

• Patient and Client Council - offers support and advocacy about any aspect of health and social care
• Disability Action -
  • Southern Trust – learning disability, physical and sensory disability
  • Western Trust – physical and sensory disability
• Mindwise - South Eastern Trust – mental health only
• Inspire Wellbeing - regional – mental health only
• AgeUK (NI Branch) - older people only
• North West Disability Forum - regional
• Mencap (NI) - learning disability support
• Compass Advocacy Network - learning, physical and mental health
• The Law Centre NI - regional support.

Please note the organisations listed in this article are provided for information only. Their inclusion does not represent an endorsement of particular organisations by ILF Scotland. See our Terms.

Part of the article above was previously published on the Mygov.scot website. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

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