Transcript Document

Advocacy in Northamptonshire
A presentation about advocacy for
people with learning disabilities
and family carers.
Introductions
• The Board had a presentation about
Advocacy in April 2011.
• There were lots of questions
• People didn’t think it was fair that we
only heard about the advocacy that
the County Council were paying for.
• There are lots of other advocacy
groups in the County.
• We are the Groups that work
mainly with people with learning
disabilities and their carers.
• Some other groups work with
people from Black and Minority
Ethnic groups, young people or
drug or alcohol users. Some of
these people might have
learning disabilities.
Before we tell you about what
we have been doing, we would
like you to do some work.
On your tables you will find a
pack of cards.
You need to sort the cards into three lists.
• ‘What you think advocates should do
or be’
What you think advocates should not
do or be’
• ‘
• ‘What advocates might do’
• A lot of things can go on any of the piles
of cards.
• This will depend on what the advocate
has agreed, and how they work.
• Often there is no right or wrong answer.
• This can make it difficult for people to
understand what an Advocate does.
Each of the organisations here
today work in a slightly different
way.
We are going to tell you a bit
about all of us...
Our Services
• People can use their personal
budgets to come to People First.
• We will support them to learn
research, advocacy and office
skills.
• If people have problems we will
try to support them to get them
sorted.
Our Services
• We work with councils,
universities, partnership
boards, individuals and the
national forum to do research
and find out things about the
lives of people with learning
disabilities so that we can
make things better.
• Our members go to conferences
around the world to speak up.
Our Work
• We are working on a Lottery Funded
project to record our history.
• Our members help to run the
regional forum.
• We are part of the Social History of
Learning Difficulties Research
Group.
• We are part of an Inclusive
Research Project.
• We run and manage our own
office.
• We are trying to get money for a
health project.
• Our members go to the partnership
board.
• We have run Skype training through
a successful funding bid.
• We have run photography,
archiving and interviewing
training through the history
project.
• We have given papers at
conferences in Scotland and
at the Open University.
• We went to Hungary to talk to other
self advocates.
• We have done research about self
advocacy groups.
• We have tried to start working
with more young people.
• We have started a new
website that we are building
ourselves.
Families in Partnership
• We provide Family
Advocacy
• This means helping the
whole family to speak up.
• We work with families who
have a member with a
severe learning disability.
• We work with people of all
ages
What have we been doing
• We work with families who are
having problems with social care and
health services.
• Some of the things we have recently
helped with include:
• Helping to get a Care Manager
• Support to move house
• Support with Child Protection issues
What have we been doing
• We are supporting some
families who have relatives living
in the Mencap homes that are
being reprovisioned.
• We run a carers group for
families who went through the
Towards 2010 Reprovisioning
• We run a carers group for a
private provider
Is a joint project between Advocacy,
Alliance and VoiceAbility.
We cover all of Northamptonshire
We provide different sorts of Issue
based Advocacy…
Total Voice Northamptonshire provide different
sorts of Advocacy:
• Independent Mental Capacity Advocate
(IMCA)
– support people who have no one to support
them and who cannot make big decisions.
• Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA)
– support people who are detained under the
Mental Health Act.
Anyone could need the help of an IMCA or
IMHA including People With Learning
Disabilities.
We also provide Advocacy for:
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People With Learning Disabilities
Carers
People with Mental Health Issues
People with sensory impairments
People with physical disabilities
Types of advocacy we provide
• Individual - supporting
someone 1-1 to speak up for
them self.
• Group - supporting a group of
people to speak up about
issues that affect their lives
Types of advocacy we provide
• Short-term issue based –
supporting people with an issue
that needs to be sorted out as
soon as possible
• Peer - people with similar
issues/disabilities supporting
each other.
The work we have been doing
since April 2011
• Right 2 Talk Project:
Training adults with learning
difficulties/disabilities to self
advocate.
• Residents Voice Project:
Running self-advocacy group
sessions and giving individual,
short term issue based advocacy
to adults with learning
difficulties/disabilities who live in
their own homes in the community.
• Supporting People Project:
Giving individual, short- term issue
based advocacy to people who are
living in “Supporting People”
accommodation. Also running a dropin service for people who don`t use
services for different reasons
• The Prisons Project:
Giving individual, short term
issue based advocacy to people
with mental health difficulties and
may have a learning
disability/difficulty too
• Training Project:
Running training for young
people with learning
difficulties/disabilities that helps
them self advocate in every day
life.
Some of the issues we have supported
people with
• Staff : Understanding
that people have the
right to privacy in their
own home and that
although staff work
there it is where people
live first.
• Food and drink:
Supporting residents to
understand they have a
right to choose the food
and drink they want and
to ask staff to explain
reasons why this may not
be possible.
• Menus:
Supporting residents in their
homes to have their menus in
a more accessible way.
• Life Skills:
Supporting people to be
as independent as
possible in their homes
to include; cooking and
cleaning their homes.
• Bullying issues:
Supporting people who
have or are being
bullied.
• Feelings:
Supporting people to understand
their feelings and emotions and how
to deal with them and express them.
• Self-advocacy:
Supporting people to speak up for
themselves about issues in their
home and life.
• Noise:
Supporting people to complain
about noise in their home.
• Going out:
Supporting people to tell staff
where they want to go in the
evening and at weekends.
How many people have we all
worked with?
Since April 2011 the total number of people
we have worked with is 471
This includes some people we have
supported at training sessions.
Some of these people have more than one
problem, or issue. We have recorded more
than 2000 interventions or actions
Group Work
In Small Groups please talk about these
things:
1. What has worked well about
advocacy you have received?
2. What has not worked well?
Please be prepared to feedback to
everyone else.
And to finish...
• All of these are things an advocate
might have been asked to do, but are
they true or false?
OR
Lay a Carpet
Baby sit
Go Shopping
Not tell a person we are
supporting about a
conversation about them
Lend Money
Put up Flat Pack
Furniture
Do twenty Push ups!