Our Advocacy Services deliver an empowerment model of advocacy and provide issue based client-led support and assistance. We offer a wide range of services, from self-help, signposting and information through to full advocacy casework.

What is advocacy?

Advocacy is taking action to help people say what they want, secure their rights, represent their interests and obtain services they need. Advocates and advocacy schemes work in partnership with the people they support and take their side. Advocacy promotes social inclusion, equality and social justice.

People who need advocacy services

Regional service (Gloucestershire, Somerset).

What advocacy does The Care Forum provide?

We have the following projects:

• Complaints Procedure Advocacy – advocacy for people who wish to make a complaint to Social Services in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and BANES.
• Drugs Advocacy Services – for adults who use, or wish to use, Bristol’s drugs services.
• Generic Advocacy – advocacy for adults in South Gloucestershire around social care issues. Eligible service users are from the following categories; older people, people with physical and sensory impairments, people with learning difficulty, people with mental health issues, and carers.
• Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy (IMCA) – for adults in South Gloucestershire who are facing a decision regarding accommodation, serious medical treatment, safeguarding or care review, who are assessed to lack capacity to this decision and who have no family or friends who are appropriate to consult. This project includes the South Gloucestershire IMCA DOLS service.
• Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) - to represent and support people who meet the eligibility criteria under the Mental Health Act 1983 in South Gloucestershire.
• Mental Health Advocacy – for adults who use mental health services in South Gloucestershire.
• NHS Complaints advocacy – for people in Bristol and South Gloucestershire who wish to make a complaint about NHS services.

If there is not a project which meets your advocacy need, it may be possible to spot purchase advocacy. This is when statutory services fund an individual piece of work, for instance we have advocated for an older person when their care home was closed and they had no family to help them chose a new home.

01/04/2014