Colchester Mind's Advocacy Services
What is Advocacy?
Advocacy has developed over the last twenty years as one way of challenging the discrimination faced by disadvantaged people, and seeks to ensure that people are able to speak out, to express their views, and defend their rights. Advocacy is a process of supporting and enabling people to:
- Express their views and concerns
- Access information and services
- Defend and promote their rights and responsibilities
- Explore choices and options.
It can be helpful in all kinds of situations where you are finding it difficult to make your views known, or to make people listen to them and take them into account. Advocacy is about empowerment, autonomy, citizenship and inclusion, but in its simplest form can just mean listening respectfully to someone.
For further information on advocacy, please refer to the 'Mind Guide to Advocacy'
How is Advocacy Different to Services Provided by Health and Social Care Professionals and Other Statutory Services?
An advocate respects the views and wishes of the person they advocate for, without judgement, and believes in their right to access information, representation, services and opportunities. Unlike health and social care staff who have a 'duty of care' to the people they work with (which means that they cannot support you in doing things that are bad for you), an advocate is independent and will represent your wishes without judging them or putting forward their own personal opinion. An advocate's responsibility is to you, not to relatives, professionals or the statutory services, and is instructed by you.
What Advocacy Services Does Colchester Mind Offer?
Colchester Mind has four separate advocacy projects:
Youth Advocacy and Participation (YAP)
YAP offers young people aged 0-18 from the Colchester and Tendring area independent advocacy services. These include:
- Mental Health Advocacy
- Advocacy in Schools in Colchester and Tendring
- Advocacy in Children's Units
- Advocacy to children working with the local authority and health services
- Advocacy to children with disabilities
- Advocacy to any young person in need.
For more information on the specific advocacy services provided by YAP, please follow the following link (Link to YAP page).
Formal Adult Advocacy
The Formal Adult Advocacy Service, based at the Lakes Mental Health Unit (Turner Road, Colchester), offers independent advocacy services to adults aged 17-70 from the Colchester area, who are subject to a Section of the Mental Health Act. For information on the specific services provided, please refer to the Formal Adult Advocacy Services' webpage (link to page).
Learning Disability Advocacy
Colchester Mind provides an independent advocacy service for adults aged 17-70 with learning disabilities and/or mental health problems who are inpatients at Colchester's Lexden Road NHS site (Springfield Rise). For information on this service, please refer to their webpage (link).
Independent Mental Health Advocacy for Older People
Colchester Mind also offers independent mental health advocacy for people over 70, who are subject to a section of the Mental Health Act. For information on this specific service, please follow this link (link to webpage).
