Advocacy Support Cymru Ltd

Registered Charity No. 1141999

Aims & Objectives

Our organisational vision is to be lead independent mental health & mental capacity advocacy organisation in Wales, being used as an authority on advocacy by agencies and Government. Our mission is to champion empowerment and rights through providing professional, independent and reliable mental health & capacity advocacy.

Services

ASC advocates are independent of other services and their role involves representing individual's views and wishes, without judgement. Advocates strive to ensure that individuals have their voices heard whenever decisions about them are made by others; that their needs are met; their unique circumstances and preferences are considered, and that their rights are upheld.

Our advocacy services are available for those with a statutory right under the Mental Health Act or Mental Capacity Act, in addition to those eligible for our non-statutory community advocacy service.

ASC also provide external training and awareness raising to highlight the role of independent advocacy, in addition to ASIST, safeTALK and Talking Mats training.

ASC provide Independent Mental Health Advocacy [IMHA] in relation to medication, treatment and care for mental health to:-

• People detained under the Mental Health Act, including short-term sections [exceptions being sections 135 & 136]
• People subject to a Community Treatment Order
• People subject to a Guardianship Order
• Conditionally discharged restricted patients
• Patients being considered for ECT or neurosurgery
• Informal in-patients in any hospital or registered establishment in Wales, who are being assessed or treated in relation to a mental disorder whilst in that setting and who are not liable to be detained

ASC provide Independent Mental Capacity Advocacy [IMCA] to people who lack capacity to make the following specific decisions:-

• Proposals to provide or withdraw serious medical treatment
• Proposals to arrange or change accommodation
• Care reviews
• Adult protection cases

IMCA's support people who lack capacity and have nobody other than paid staff to be consulted, with the exception of safeguarding decisions, in which family or friends may be available.

An advocate may also be required in cases where Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards [DoLS] are being considered or applied.

ASC provide Community Advocacy to:

• People in receipt of secondary mental health service support, e.g. being managed by a Community Mental Health Team [C.M.H.T.] or receiving treatment from a psychologist or psychiatrist
• Former secondary mental health service users who have been discharged from those services within the last 3 yeaers. Advocates can only help them access reassessment at this stage.
• Psychiatric inpatients requiring advocacy for non-IMHA issues [medication, treatment or care for mental health] which impact on their mental health

Referrals

ASC welcomes self-referrals in addition to referrals from other people who are supporting them to make the referral, provided the person requiring advocacy has capacity to consent to the referral being made. Advocates are also able to provide non-instructed advocacy to those lacking capacity to consent to a referral being made on their behalf. Self-referrals can be made using various methods, including by phone, letter, email or speaking directly to an advocate. Referral forms for all of our advocacy services can be found on our website.

ASC is able to receive and respond to referrals in Welsh or English, according to preference.

IMCA referrals can only be made by certain professionals such as health board and local authority staff, designated safeguarding leads and DoLS teams and staff authorised to make referrals on their behalf. All IMCA referrals much be submitted using the IMCA referral form. ASC are able to respond to referrals or queries between 9am - 5pm Monday-Thursday & Saturday and 9am - 4.30pm Friday.

From January 2022, ASC will be available to respond to referrals on Bank Holidays [excluding Christmas Day and Boxing Day].

Although we would like our advocacy to be available to as many people as possible, our services have certain limits which prevent us from working with all those who may want or need an advocate.

Call us and we will be happy to let you know whether you or the patient are eligible