History of Advocacy

Advocacy is:

‘Taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain the services they need’

Independent Advocacy Campaign

ARX believes, and it is generally agreed, that advocacy as provided by today’s independent advocacy organisations, evolved from the Citizen Advocacy movement in the United States and Canada in the mid 1960’s which stemmed from Bengt Nirge, Wolf Wolfensberger’s and John O’Brien’s work on normalisation. This has been acknowledged by supporters and critics alike as fundamental to advocacy development in a number of countries, most notably the USA, Canada, Australasia, and the UK.

Also of great influence were the many of today’s larger charities which developed out of different forms of advocacy. For example Scope, began in 1952 when four people stood up for the ideal that every child should have the right to an education. Their children had cerebral palsy and at the time were considered “uneducable” – at best to be pitied, at worst discarded by society. The charity was set up to prove what was possible and to fight for the recognition of the human rights of all disabled people.

In 1946, Judy Fryd, a mother of a child with a learning disability (Mental Handicap as was in those days), formed 'The National Association of Parents of Backward Children' (which later became Mencap). She wrote to ’Nursery World’, magazine inviting other parents to contact her. Many parents wrote to Judy expressing their anger and sorrow at the lack of services.

Since the late 1970s, mental health services continue to be transformed by the growing influence of consumer and family organizations. Through strong advocacy, consumer and family organizations have gained a voice in legislation and policy for mental health service delivery. Organizations representing consumers and family members, though divergent in their historical origins and philosophy, have developed some important, overlapping goals: overcoming stigma and preventing discrimination, promoting self-help groups, and promoting recovery from mental illness (Frese, 1998).

Amnesty International was founded in the early sixties on the belief in the power of ordinary people to make extraordinary change.

In 1961, British lawyer Peter Benenson wrote a newspaper appeal, 'The Forgotten Prisoners', calling for an international campaign to protest against the imprisonment of men and women for their political or religious beliefs. Within six months, what started as a brief publicity effort, was being developed into a permanent, international movement, speaking up for the human rights of prisoners of conscience.

As they grew, their focus expanded to take in not just prisoners of conscience, but other victims of human rights abuses - such as torture, 'disappearances' and the death penalty - throughout the world.

The Civil Rights Movement produced many inspirational people who can be said to influence the reason for, and development of, advocacy. The following is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt from as long ago as December 1948

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

Independent Advocacy has flourished in Britain over the last twenty five years and has developed a rich and diverse provision. There was no great advocacy plan and certainly no architect of this development. It has sometimes happened from a scramble to create something independent and in response to people’s needs. In other words it has been reactive rather than organised. It has evolved into a movement that is now recognised as a valuable commodity by individuals who use it, Government and Services alike.

Today there are a number of advocacy models that all have similarities, and advocacy provision is diverse and as varied as life itself. This is a reflection of the way that advocacy developed to meet the differing needs of individual people.

The following are examples of symptoms or conditions that indicate why some people are more likely than others to benefit from the support of an independent advocate:

Impairment (cognitive, psychological, motor, and sensory): people who do not use words to communicate or do not use formal methods of communication or people who are regarded as incapable of making decisions.

• Age: children and young people and the elderly who feel that others have power and control over them
• Reputation: people who have a negative reputation within the wider community because of their behaviour, mental ill health, disability, sexuality or status
• Physical condition: people who are physically or mentally frail, ill or impaired
• Cultural or ethnic differences: people who do not use English as their first language or those whose background and culture is different and/or mis-understood by the majority population
• Limited life experience or knowledge: those who have lived in care systems for most of their life or have been overprotected by family members and others, because of a disability.
• Lack of support and help: people who are just worn out by trying to navigate the plethora of health and social care systems
• Abuse: those who have been abused in anyway and suffered at the hands of others
• Isolation: those experiencing family breakdown, and dislocation