Access to a full range of advocacy services and/or training in self-advocacy should be available.
Services may be in the form of self-advocacy, peer advocacy, professional advocacy, group advocacy and legal advocacy. Such services should be available at all stages of treatment and recovery process. Referral to an appropriate agency for advice/assistance with income support, employment re-training, new skills development and accommodation is a necessary part of the care programme.
The Irish Advocacy Network exists to promote and facilitate Peer Advocacy
on an island-wide basis
This is achieved through the provision of Information and Support for Mental Health service Users and or Survivors. We aim to support people in speaking up for themselves and in achieving
empowerment by taking control of their own lives.
Amnesty Internationals vision is of a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards. Amnesty International undertakes research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.
Advocacy is defined as including services in which the interests of a person seeking a social service are represented in order to assist the person in getting entitlements to such service but does not include legal representation.
Speaking on behalf of a person or empowering that person to speak for him or herself are the more popularly understood interpretations of advocacy.
Discrimination is described in the Act as the treatment of a person in a less favourable way than another person is, has been or would be treated on any of the above grounds.
