Advocacy Models
Advocacy is just one way of working to ensure that people’s rights and wishes are respected. As well as advocacy for different groups of people being established, a number of terms have been developed to describe different ways that a person can be supported to ensure that their voice is heard and responded to.
Traditionally advocacy comes in two broad categories, Self advocacy and representational one to one advocacy. All advocacy models should be seen as equal in value and can best be described as tools in a tool box to be used for the right job at the right time, and complementary to each other. What form of advocacy is used and when, should recognise the diversity of those who choose to access it and depend on what is best suited to the individual at a particular time.
Self-Advocacy or Speaking up for yourself is to speak up for oneself, either as a member of a group or as an individual and contains an element of developing the confidence, skills and knowledge to do this. Self-advocacy groups are the same as self-help groups but will often involve the use of a facilitator or supporter where additional skills are required that members of the group do not already have.
One to one advocacy - An independent organisation with knowledge of the different agencies within the legal, health or welfare systems, recruits advocates who use their skills and expertise to represent another person's interests, to assist that person to get their point across more effectively. This service may be provided by independent paid professional staff or by volunteers with relevant training and/or experience. This type of advocacy is common to all client groups and occurs when one person speaks up on another’s behalf. An advocate stands beside the advocacy partner and focuses on seeing things from that person’s perspective. The advocate is not there to represent their own views but to represents the advocacy partner’s interests as if they were their own. An advocate does not make judgements about what is in a person’s “best interest”. An advocate will always encourage a person to speak for themselves where ever this is possible.
The following are all forms of Self advocacy:
Collective advocacy
People in similar situations come together - with or without external support - to address a common cause, draw strength from each other and get their collective voices heard. This type of advocacy is common with survivors of mental ill health such as UKAN (United Kingdom Advocacy Network) the national federation of advocacy projects, patients' councils, user forums and self-help and support groups working in the field of mental health.
Self-Advocacy
Self-Advocacy is to speak up for oneself, either as a member of a group or as an individual, and contains an element of developing the confidence, skills and knowledge to do this. Self-advocacy groups will often involve the use of a facilitator or supporter, to offer additional skills and knowledge that members of the group do not have. This term for advocacy is most common among people with a learning disability who will often refer to themselves as self advocates.
Self-advocacy groups are mostly groups of people who use services, have the same interests locally or have a common cause, and people work together to influence and challenge the way services are run. Groups can become lobbying organisations, involved in awareness raising and often provide training to service providers on issues that are relevant to them.
People First groups
Some Self advocacy groups are referred to as People first groups. People First is an international civil rights movement that campaigns for people with a learning disability to be treated equally and fairly. Locally they are independent groups promoting self advocacy and are run by their members. They link into, or are affiliated to, a national network called ‘People First’ to form a collective voice in order to lobby those in authority to bring about change.
The following are all forms of representational advocacy
Long term volunteer Advocacy (Citizen Advocacy model)
Volunteer Citizen Advocacy is about individual active citizenship, where one member of the community makes a commitment to the rights of another who is disadvantaged and/or socially excluded. This commitment can be either time limited to assist a person in dealing with a specific issue, decision or crisis or it can be a longer-term commitment where an advocacy relationship develops. The longer-term Volunteer Citizen Advocate helps to identify problems and assists the person in taking steps to help resolve them. A main aim of longer-term partnerships is to combat the discrimination and social exclusion experienced by the Advocacy Partner.
Key features of Citizen Advocacy:
- Long term, one to one relationships
- Advocates are unpaid
- Advocacy schemes ‘match’ advocate and advocacy partner and support the relationship
- The advocate is accountable primarily to their advocacy partner
- Advocacy schemes are structurally independent from service provider agencies
For more information see CA Coalition website http://www.cacoalition.org.uk - National Coalition of Citizen Advocacy Schemes
Peer Advocacy
Peer Advocacy refers to “experts by experience”, and is used to describe advocacy relationships where both the advocate and the advocacy partner share similar experiences, difficulties or discrimination. This can include looked after children, with experience of children’s homes, those with mental ill health, the elderly or people with a learning disability.
Peer advocacy is often spontaneous in such settings as day centres, residential homes, hospital wards, self advocacy groups, or self help groups. Often it happens because one person feels more able to speak up than their counterpart and people feel united because of a common cause. The relationship is based on mutual support and empowerment and has the added benefit of a special insight and close rapport being developed between the people involved. The primary qualification is their own experience of disability, exclusion or using services.
Some people with substance misuse or mental health issues for instance may prefer to have an advocate, who has similar experiences. They are then supported by someone who “understands” by experience and will not be judgemental about their circumstances.
Issues Based Advocacy
This model of advocacy is referred to by many different names including Short Term, Crisis, Professional and Casework advocacy. In general it means that advocacy intervention is offered to address a specific issue or situation and is not intended to be ongoing. It is not necessarily in a crisis situation and it may not be particularly short term but will exist for the time it takes to resolve the issue.
This can include support to choose a new home, moving out of a long stay hospital, child protection cases and parenting issues, personal finances, support through hospital admittance, any involvement with the legal system, access to appropriate health and social care and so on.
This model of advocacy provision is usually carried out by members of staff employed by established advocacy organisations. Sometimes an organisation will have a group of experienced volunteers who are also willing and able to undertake issues-based work and who will be supervised and trained for this role. Sessional advocates may sometimes be used when advocacy organisations are under pressure and need additional help to meet the demand for their service. These advocates will often be self-employed and work on a consultancy basis.
Key points to this type of issues based advocacy are:
- It is temporary and does not involve a long term commitment
- It can bring in advocates with specialised knowledge and experience
- Advocacy relationships focus on resolving specific issues and come to an end when targets are met.
Non Instructed Advocacy
Advocates should always commence their role by assuming that the person they are advocating for can communicate their wishes. Advocates should do everything they possibly can to enable the person to understand and communicate what they think. There will however be times when a person’s ability to direct their advocate is so limited, or in rare circumstances non existent, that advocates are faced with the choice of doing nothing or adopting a “quality of life” and “legal and civil rights” based approach.
This may be because of the person’s limitations in grasping concepts or because they are not able to make others understand their wishes because of significant communication barriers or a lack of capacity to do so. Capacity to instruct or understand can be diminished for a number of reasons, for example mental health problems, dementia, acquired brain injury, learning disabilities etc. To ensure that this group of people have a voice an advocate will strive to identify that the person’s fundamental human and civil rights and needs are met.
To do this they will use a number of core quality of life domains, together with relevant legislation, to make comparisons and consider what quality of life or experiences would be usual and acceptable to the general population.
This approach provides a means by which a particular group of people can have a ‘voice’, ensuring their individual needs and preferences are taken into account, through the process of an Independent Advocate asking questions and probing responses. It is important, however, to remember that advocacy of this model should only be used as a very last resort when all other attempts at communication and understanding a person’s wishes have failed.
Other forms of advocacy
Advocacy has fuzzy edges; the work of many agencies includes elements of independent advocacy - for example, Welfare Rights organisations, Centres for Independent Living, Citizens Advice Bureaux, housing advice centres, volunteer befriending schemes - but these agencies would not typically see advocacy as their core activity. Some organisations such as, self-help groups, carers groups, social groups, community groups, religious groups and other voluntary organisations, may also undertake some formal advocacy as part of their wider remit.
Many professionals involved in the lives of those who access service systems to maintain their life, regard themselves as advocates. This may be the whole of their professional involvement as in the case of solicitors, lawyers and barristers; or just one aspect of it as, for example social workers, care staff and health workers. They all contribute to the bigger picture and are part of the advocacy spectrum but very different from independent representational advocacy.
