Advocacy

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is taking action to help people:

  • express their views and wishes
  • secure their rights
  • have their interests represented
  • access information and services
  • explore choices and options

Advocacy promotes equality, social justice and social inclusion. It can empower people to speak up for themselves. It can help people become more aware of their own rights, to exercise those rights and be involved in and influence decisions that are being made about their future.

In mental health and learning disabilities, advocacy organisations aim to support service users to be fully involved as possible in their care, treatment, and other decision-making processes.

They aim to help people speak out about their concerns, argue their case, assert their rights, express their views and where appropriate, make complaints.

There are a variety of organisations offering advocacy services across the Trust’s areas; you can find more about them in this web section.

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