Advocacy services can help residents who would otherwise have difficulty to:
- Access information and services
- Be involved in decisions about their lives
- Explore choices and options
- Defend and promote their rights and responsibilities
- Speak out about issues that matter to them
What is advocacy?
Advocacy can come in many different forms such as:
Self-advocacy: When individuals represent and speak for themselves.
Informal advocacy: When family, friends or neighbours supporting an individual in having their wishes and feelings heard, which may include speaking on their behalf.
Collective advocacy: Involves groups of individuals with common experiences.
Peer advocacy: One individual acting as an advocate for another who shares a common experience or background.
Citizen advocacy: Involves a one-to-one long-term partnership between a trained or supported volunteer citizen advocate and an individual.
Independent volunteer advocacy: Involves an independent and unpaid advocate who works on a short term, or issue led basis, with one or more individuals.
Formal advocacy: May refer to the advocacy role of staff in Health, Social Care and other settings where professionals are required as part of their role to consider peoples wishes.
Independent professional advocacy: A professional who is trained and paid to undertake their professional role as an advocate.
Advocacy services
We fund a number of advocacy services in order to assist our residents to gain the right support should they need it. Our trained social care workers can assist you with finding the right advocacy service for your situation.
Advocacy for children and young people
Tros Gynnal Plant (external website) provide independent, professional advocacy services for children and young people who are ‘looked after’ or ‘children in need of care and support’ in North Wales.
Some advocacy services help people with a specific condition and details of these services can be provided by our Single Point of Access Team (SPoA).
Advocacy and mental capacity
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 introduced Independent Mental Capacity Advocates (IMCAs). An IMCA supports people who can’t make or understand decisions by stating their views and wishes or securing their rights.
This is a statutory advocacy service, which means in certain situations citizens who lack capacity must be referred to an advocate.
An IMCA is not the decision maker, but the decision maker has a duty to take into account the information given by the IMCA.
The IMCA service aims to help particularly vulnerable people who otherwise have no family or friends consult about those decisions.
IMCAs are independent people who work with and support citizens who lack capacity, and represent their views to those who are working out their best interests.
How to get support
If you think that either you or someone that you know may benefit from this support when accessing Adult Social Care, please contact our Single Point of Access team.