Have you wondered? …

I was asked recently to describe what advocacy is. I found there is no concise, correct response as advocacy is varied and diverse.

What is Advocacy?

Advocacy is non-discriminatory, independent, confidential and person centred support for people who want to express their thoughts, feelings and opinions about a service which they believe has let them down, or overlooks their rights and entitlements. Or, a service they wish to access which is either invisible to them or is not easily accessible for them, including services which do not give fair consideration to their individual and/or family systems, heritage, beliefs, religion, capabilities, cultural attitude, well being, lifestyle, financial limitations and abilities. This includes injury and harm through medical and clinical practices {NHS Complaints}, mental health services, rights to liberty and mental capacity.

Advocacy is about influencing changes in policy and legislation, promoting healthier systems for people to navigate, understand and be a part of. It is about researching and providing evidence in delivering challenges so everybody who needs support, gets it in a timely and open way.

Building a relationship, establishing trust, consent, respect, safety and sharing knowledge and experience are all part of the advocates role, to encourage social inclusion, confidence, fairness and justice for people.

Advocates achieve this by researching and offering information, attending meetings, supporting letter writing, knowing and understanding rights to explain to people, speaking up for others when asked to do so (with professionals) and lobbying parliament to name just a few.

This can enable people to feel listened to, valued, respected, noticed, confident and make informed decisions, access services and information, understand their choices and the limitations within that and develop their sense of self worth, to know they matter.

On a very simple scale, advocacy can help people to feel there is a difference in their life which means they can live the way in which they choose to or are adjusting to, without discrimination, injury, harm, neglect, inequality, unfairness and judgement.

Advocacy is about training, staying up to date, relevant and supportive, for anyone who wants to have a basic or deeper understanding of advocacy. Training can drive up standards in social, public and private services by developing staff, and helps advocates to support people professionally and consistently, using their skills and knowledge.

Advocacy services are available in prisons, secure hospitals, the community and residential homes of various settings, working with older persons, military veterans, gypsy & traveller communities, acquired brain injury, NHS complaints, DoLS, IMCA, IMHA, appropriate adult, learning disability etc.

 If an advocate was to have an aim, it would be for people to develop the courage to self advocate in their own time.

 If you would like to find out more, go to: http://www.seap.org.uk

Good enough?

I grew up with 2 x brothers, 1 sister, 3 x half brothers (2 of whom I didnt meet and know (very briefly) until well into teenage years) and 1 x half sister. I had my own dad who separated from my mum when I was under four years old, followed by two step dads and another man whom I always viewed as dad.

I did not have a conventional or traditional family life (whatever that is anyway), and have given this information to set the scene on what is on my mind and has been for the past few weeks.

Good enough?

Afre recent weeks of supporting someone in family courts and being involved with social workers, family dynamics, the fostering process and intensive drawn out investigations, I find myself constantly asking, ‘What is good enough parenting?’

My children are grown adults. When they were growing up, I compared my parenting to how I was parented, using that as something to set my standards against, I thought I knew the answer to this and if anyone asked me I would reel off many things, all about what is ‘right’ ‘wrong’ ‘harmful’ ‘acceptable’ etc.

Now? … I genuinly think I have no idea. Who says what is acceptable and based upon what? That which is fundamentlally right for the well being of the child, regardless of where they are placed/living, or are there different ‘acceptable’ levels of good enough, depending on where the child has come from in the first place? For example, if the childs natural home is unsafe due to domestic abuse and regular attendance at school is unattainable, is it ok for the child to then live where those issues do not occur, where the siblings are already placed, but there is constantly aggressive language, perhaps some drug use in the adults, but school attendance becomes 100%, baby babble becomes a developed small person conversation? It appears to be better than what was…doesn’t it?

Does my idea of good enough for children count? In general, or just for my children? Would my lifestyle and differing standards be acceptable to all others? My children went to state schools, would children in a private school be ‘better off’ than their counterparts in state schools, perhaps go to an academy? What matters, and what doesn’t? What makes a difference? What do parents do that doesnt make any difference whatsoever? And should I even be talking about ‘parents’? What about people of all ages, cultures and beliefs that are responsible for raising children?

On one hand I feel sad that I have lost the ability to answer this. I dont know if society is influencing my thoughts or having grown children, I now view things differently. I remember how opinionated I was about good enough parenting raising them, and realise, perhaps that said more about how I was raised and what I would have liked for myself. So then I ask, is it OK to raise children based on what our childhood experiences have been, or as in my case, have not been?

On the other hand, I believe I have been rudely shoved out of my experiences and self expectations to look more broadly at family dynamics, histories and cultures, leaving behind my self imposed parenting style, continually striving to be available on all levels, consistently and endlessly loving, goddess in all things mother and home! And yes, I truly loved every single day. It helped that I felt proud that I had turned around my early life experiences and that I was able to juggle that with developing my education and being supportive and encouraging to my small family.

An ear worm is when a song gets stuck in your head and you keep singing it over and over. This question about good enough parenting is my ear worm.

Does anyone know the answer to this? Can anyone help me with what good enough parenting is? If you had to explain it to someone and share how come you believe what you do, what would you tell them?

Glasgow Girls

Tonight I watched Glasgow Girls on iplayer as I missed it on BBC3 earlier on in the week.

It is a musical drama based on a true story about asylum seekers and in particular, children seeking asylum.

How inspiring, thought provoking, emotive and impactful i thought this was.

There is a strong theme of advocacy running throughout the drama.

Did you watch it, and did you interpret the support from the girls as advocating for rights and a change in government policy, to protect their friends and classmates?

Tell me your thoughts.

 

Do you want to understand more about advocacy? Go to http://www.seap.org.uk

 

Voiceless

{Suzanna} Arundhati Roy is a writer, activist and essayist, involved in human rights amongst other things. Arundhati Roy won the Sydney Peace Prize in 2004.

In one of her works, Arundhati Roy writes, “There’s really no such thing as the voiceless. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard”.

Independant Advocacy can help you to find your voice; to know and exercise your rights, get your voice heard and to speak up for yourself.

 

 

 

Peer advocacy

A colleague has sent me her story telling of why and how she became an advocate and what it means to her.

Thank you for sharing this and helping to demystify advocacy.

Thank You

I began working at SEAP a year ago. I had been off work recovering from Bipolar Disorder and looking for voluntary work to help me return to employment and for help with my confidence in a professional capacity.

I was really pleased to be accepted, although I wasn’t quite sure what advocacy was about. I thought it may be similar to my training as a mental health nurse.

I have always been quite outspoken and very pro patient.

I joined the Portsmouth team and they were brilliant. They were very enthusiastic about their work; spending endless time with me and helping me to understand my role as a Peer Advocate. It has taken me a while to get the hang of the database and I am improving.

I began by shadowing advocates, who were very patient with their client’s. I was so pleased when my workbook was marked as ‘positive towards clients’ and ‘appears competent’.

I was finally allocated my first clients and worked in Community Advocacy.

I have been learning how to search for information, how to liaise with large companies and workers from other fields. I wanted to do a good job representing advocacy.

I started to build my own client base and was amazed at the variety of problems. The trained advocates were always on hand for me. It was such a good feeling to be able to share my thoughts about my different experiences and how I was managing them.

My confidence in my working life has really increased. I have become quite a good advocate for sorting out my own issues, as well as being quite assertive for clients needs.

I have become more confident in speaking out generally and my interest in all the different areas of advocacy is developing. The more work I do, the more involved I become.

 I thank advocacy for giving me the chance to develop new skills and helping me over my terrible lack of confidence while recovering from Bipolar illness.

 Writing this is a lovely opportunity to say thank you to the team.

A daisy chain

I have spent these past couple of weeks in two directions … moving forward and revisiting my past. One has required using my brain power: being developed by my new manager in pastures new, whilst she tentatively steps to the sidelines as she witnesses my growth and nurtures my strengths and my weaknesses in my new role. This is me moving forward, arms outstretched eager to learn. At times I feel out of my depth and she smiles at my telling her of my insecurities as I am on this journey of learning, quietly telling me we shall have to agree to disagree on the fine point of my suitability to this position.

The other – revisiting my past…was always going to be difficult and has come about in a way which I never expected. I have been supporting a young woman whom I love, whilst she goes through family courts and all that involves and entails. I have held my hand out to her for her to hang on to.

She held my hand and is holding on.

In order to support her fully, I have found myself spending hours telling of my childhood, teenage hood, and adulthood, to social workers, guardians and solicitors. And telling this young woman of her family history from days when I was the younger side of my own life as a mum.

Life has felt as though by day I move forward and by evening I move backward.

Tomorrow we are back in the family courts for two days, and I know that whatever the outcome, this is going to be the most challenging and emotional time for both of us, for many different reasons.

So I thought that tonight was a good night for some motown and a good book with the sun streaming in through my window, keeping me warm.

I want to share with you a quote from the book I chose to read, for no other reason than it struck a chord within me. The book is ‘Choosing Extraordinary’ by Helen Cottee.

“…one hand reaching forward to those ahead and one hand reaching back to those coming up behind you – a daisy chain of saints leading the way home” Thank you Helen.

Advocacy in a daisy chain and doing it with ‘meraki’.