| Who is advocacy for?
Our clients are people who are suffering from a major diagnosable mental illness such as Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar disorder, Depression or Dementia. These illnesses can affect over 1 in 4 of the population at any one time.
What We Do
Mind Jersey provides advocacy through weekly drop-in sessions at the in-patient psychiatric units in Jersey for adults with acute mental health difficulties. Patients can meet with an advocate on the ward and discuss the support they need.
‘Very often it feels like it’s you against the hospital. Somebody to help you would make you feel stronger and more secure. An advocate could help you to express your views in a constructive way.’
We also meet with clients with mental health difficulties living in the community.
‘I didn’t know which way to turn and the advocate guided me through it all. She gave me a clear view forward and the strength to take back control’. ‘She gave me practical as well as moral support and made sure I was treated properly’
The service we offer is: -
Free Confidential Independent
The advocacy service can support you: -
- To understand your rights
- To improve communication with health and social care staff
- To ensure you are given up to date information about your care and treatment
- By accompanying you at ward round meetings, and at any other meeting in respect of your care and treatment
- To obtain legal advice and support
- To appeal against sectioning, and accompany you to Tribunals
- When care packages are being planned
- To make complaints
- To get in touch with other services
- To explore options and consider consequences
Our aim is to help people who use mental health services regain some control over their lives.
An advocate respects the views and wishes of the person they advocate for, without judgement, and believes in their right to access information, representation, services and opportunities.
Having a mental health problem or experiencing mental distress often means that your opinions and ideas are not taken seriously, or that you are not offered the opportunities and choices you would like. Being labelled with a diagnosis of mental illness is often linked to poverty, unemployment and exclusion from everyday life. Advocacy can and does help to redress this.
Advocacy support is needed in the mental health services because people who use them can feel dis-empowered by the rules, procedures and people providing the services. Decisions are taken that affect their daily lives and well-being, for example:
- being detained in hospital under a section of the Mental Health Act
- being prescribed medication which has adverse physical side effects
- how much money they have to live on through the welfare benefits system
- provision of suitable accommodation
We want to ensure that the voice of patients with mental health difficulties in Jersey is heard by the appropriate person or service.
Advocates do not give advice; they present clients with information and support them to consider the options so that the client can make a decision.
Mental health advocacy has developed over the last 20 years as one way of challenging the discrimination faced by users of the mental health system. Having a mental health problem creates a barrier to social inclusion. It can make voicing opinions, wants and needs almost impossible. Mental ill health commonly leads to sufferers experiencing discrimination and exclusion; socially, in the workplace, in terms of housing and accessing services. We can help with many of the difficulties that arise in these settings.
‘People don’t need an advocate all the time. But they need to know that advocacy is available and how to make contact, if the need arises.’
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