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Research and Practice
Videos and Presentations
Professionals, family and friends have a role in advocating for the person. It is essential that people with mental health issues must have access to a range of advocacy services that professionals are aware of and support the person to access they include:
Independent (Issue-based) Advocacy
Advocacy services should be independent of service providers and not be controlled by the organisations that are providing the mental health services. This is because advocacy has to be truly independent to be effective. The goal of advocacy in all its forms should be to enable and support the person to develop the confidence and skills to be able to speak and advocate for themselves.
Publications (date ordered)
Getting The Services We Need: A guide to systematic advocacy for mental health service users (2008) Published by Central Potential - Te Rito Māia. Central Potential is a non-government organisation in New Zealand run by mental health service users. This publication has be written for people with lived experience of mental distress and their networks who want to be better informed and more skillful at systemic advocacy. Challenges and solutions to many areas are covered included: Defining advocacy; Understanding the system; Developing effective advocacy; Working with the media; and Developing Leadership.
A Voice to Trust Produced by Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance What is Independent Advocacy? Meet James, Zena and Rachel. All three have used Independent Advocates at times in their lives when they needed someone to help them stand up for themselves. James explains "Some officials are very obstructive, they've got no time for you. So it's good to have somebody to help you stand up to them. The bottom line is, it's your wishes that'll come through. The advocate supports you in carrying out your choices." . This two part film describes the story of 3 people using independent advocacy services. Provided in English, BSL Signed Language, Chinese, Farsi, French, English Subtitles, Somali and Urdu.