Safeguarding people who don’t have a voice from abuse
As independent advocates, many of the people we work with are not able to express their own feelings and wishes.
As independent advocates, many of the people we work with are not able to express their own feelings and wishes.
Since an advocate’s role is to ensure their voice is heard, we use a variety of strategies to best represent their point of view, from observation and speaking with friends and family to seeking out wishes they may have expressed in the past. This is called non-instructed advocacy.
People who can’t speak up for themselves and tell others about their experiences are at greater risk from abuse in settings like the Edenfield Centre.
At VoiceAbility, we’ve developed new training resources for non-instructed advocacy. These accessible exercises are designed to enable new and experienced advocates to reflect on their work, and build their knowledge of the non-instructed advocacy approaches.
Learning and Development Officer Anna Tabbush said:
We know that non-instructed advocacy is complex. It’s vital that VoiceAbility’s advocates are equipped with the knowledge and training that will allow them to speak up for the people they support, and can challenge abuse with confidence.
“The training builds on work we’ve been doing for a long time to improve our practice. The feedback’s been very positive. We’ll be adding discussion workshops for advocates soon too – we know there’s a wealth of knowledge and experience in our staff, and we’re always looking for ways to share that.”