Advocacy
The Advocacy Service recognizes that users of mental health services may be disadvantaged by the nature of their distress, by the social stigma of mental illness and by the controlling nature of many psychiatric interventions.

We act to provide independent and impartial support, representation and information to service users to try to redress the imbalance of power within the system.The primary aim of the Advocacy Service is to empower service users to self advocate; a secondary aim being to engage in a constructive, but challenging relationship with service providers to improve provision within mental health.

Referrals to the Advocacy Service result in requests for assistance with rehousing, benefit checks, debt management and involvement with the Criminal Justice System, to name but a few.However, an additional strand to the Advocacy Service involves input with service users who are inpatients, across a range of institutions.

Due to indications that a significant number of inpatients were effectively "slipping through the net" within acute services and not being referred to ACMHS, as a specialist provider of culturally appropriate services, we have now established an Inpatient Advocacy Service at Withington Hospital and the Edale Unit (Manchester Royal Infirmary).
This operates weekly and involves our attendance at case conferences, ward rounds and tribunals. It may also involve providing inpatients with further information on the Mental Health Act or Human Rights Act, or liaison with other agencies. We operate a proactive approach in raising both patient and staff awareness around the importance of providing culturally appropriate services.
Over time we have begun to see a positive relationship growing between ourselves and nursing staff, together with the development of additional patient centred services such as ward meetings and recreational trips out. Furthermore, by making this initial contact with inpatients, we are able to offer them further support/services on discharge from hospital.

In addition to engaging with acute services, we also offer advocacy input at the Regional Secure Unit (Edenfield Centre, Prestwich Hospital) and High Dependency Unit (Tameside Hospital). For those service users who are detained most commonly under Sections 37 or 37/41 of the Mental Health Act, we may receive referrals from Ashworth Special Hospital (Merseyside).

Again as well as providing advocacy, we seek to create dialogue with staff around culturally appropriate service delivery. We feel that this is of paramount importance for these service users who are often detained for a considerable length of time. The Advocacy Service also sits on Ashworth's Transcultural Committee and has links with the Secure Commissioning Team based in Sefton.