Family carers provide a lifetime of love, care, and support for their relatives – and often are their greatest advocates. Acknowledgement of this important role, and support for it, is often absent.
The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) has worked with family carers and advocacy partners (Bringing Us Together, Advonet, Cloverleaf, Warrington Speak Up and Pathways Associates) to produce a practical advocacy guide for family carers who have an adult relative who has a learning disability or is autistic and who have been or may be admitted to a mental health service. This work is one of many advocacy projects linked to a national advocacy review, which is due to be published later this year.
It brings together information in one place that family carers told the CBF they needed to know when they are required to advocate alongside or on behalf of their relative. Its focus is on what can be done to try and avoid admission to a mental health service and practical ways to advocate for good outcomes for your relative.
The Advocacy Resource sets out information in 4 main sections: Know your Acts, Family Carer Rights, Living a good and meaningful life, and an overview of the different types of advocacy. It provides and brings together a wealth of information and links to useful resources
The resource is hosted on the CBF website but will be formally launched on 27th November at the Challenging Behaviour National Strategy group and will be brought to the North East & Yorkshire Learning Disability & Autism Programme Improvement Network on 11 December 2023.
