SEAP Help

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SEAP West Berks 

What is advocacy?
Advocacy in all its forms seeks to ensure that people, particularly those who are most vulnerable in society, are able to:
Have their voice heard on issues that are important to them.
Defend and safeguard their rights.
Have their views and wishes genuinely considered when decisions are being made about their lives.
Advocacy is a process of supporting and enabling people to:
Express their views and concerns.
Access information and services.
Defend and promote their rights and responsibilities.
Explore choices and options
An advocate is someone who provides advocacy support when you need it. An advocate might help you access information you need or go with you to meetings or interviews, in a supportive role. You may want your advocate to write letters on your behalf, or speak for you in situations where you don’t feel able to speak for yourself.

Advocacy Services

We welcome spot-purchase arrangements for specific advocacy provision including out of area referrals by Local Authorities for Mental Health Advocacy, Care Act Advocacy, IMCA, DoLS and RPR work, etc.
Spot-purchase advocacy can help when there is no contract to provide that particular piece of work. It is a single piece of work funded by an individual, their representative or a statutory service to provide advocacy for an individual client.
We can support the individual to:
Identify what they want from services
Understand their rights and entitlements
Have their voice heard by services
Make difficult decisions for themselves

Military Advocacy

Advocacy gives you a voice when it may be difficult for you to say what you want. This might be because you are too emotionally involved, or you feel intimidated by other people involved, or perhaps you don’t think you’ll be listened to.
As veterans, you are the people we feel most proud of, and who we should thank for your service. Yet we also know that you often struggle to cope with life in the civilian community.
seAp’s Military Advocacy Service (mAs) supports veterans, reservists, and their direct family, many of whom find themselves facing a range of health, housing, financial, family and social problems. Our specialist service understands and appreciates the distinct needs of veterans, and our advocates work to help get people’s lives back on track. 
Many veterans requiring advocacy support have multiple and complex issues which need to be addressed. Working closely with health and social care services, military bases and military focused organisations (e.g. TRBL, SSAFA, Help for Heroes, Combat Stress, Veterans UK), seAp’s unique advocacy service provides specialist support,

c-APP for PIP & ESA

Since the dark days of ATOS, seAp has provided independent advocacy support to people going through what used to be DLA and Incapacity Benefit but is now PIP and ESA (we do love our acronyms in this sector don’t we?). However we have only ever been able to facilitate this service in the area of the seAp HQ, Hastings in Sussex. Which was a shame as we had a 100% success rate when supporting people to challenge a decision when we disagreed with the decision the assessors had made.
We understand that people who have an upcoming medical assessment or who are filling in the forms can feel nervous, sometimes reluctant or unsure of how to describe the extent to which they can be debilitated by their conditions. Combined with the stress of having to undertake a medical assessment and all the things that need to be remembered along with this, it can mean that assessors often don’t get an accurate idea of what the person’s situation is really like.

Spot Advocacy Services

We welcome spot-purchase arrangements for specific advocacy provision including out of area referrals by Local Authorities for Mental Health Advocacy, Care Act Advocacy, IMCA, DoLS and RPR work, etc.
Spot-purchase advocacy can help when there is no contract to provide that particular piece of work. It is a single piece of work funded by an individual, their representative or a statutory service to provide advocacy for an individual client.
We can support the individual to:
Identify what they want from services
Understand their rights and entitlements
Have their voice heard by services
Make difficult decisions for themselves

Learning Disability Help

A Learning Disability Partnership Board (LDPB) is made up of people with learning disabilities, carers and people from health and community services.
The aim of an LDPB is to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities and their families. They work for and with people with learning disabilities as equal partners, and the activities of an LDPB are led by them.
What does an LDPB do?
Brings people together to talk about important issues for people with learning disabilities, and their family, friends and carers
Works to make sure the voices of people with learning disabilities are heard by local services
Ensures people with learning disabilities get their rights
Ensures people who provide services make their services available to people with learning disabilities, and make them easy to use
Tells services what people want, and how to make things better
Helps services to make decisions
Keeps people up to date with local issues affecting people with learning disabilities

Care Act Help Advocacy

Providing Independent Advocacy under the Care Act
Some people find making decisions about health and care needs very difficult. The Care Act gives eligible people the right to have an independent advocate who can:
support them to prepare for care assessments, meetings or safeguarding enquiries
help them understand the care and support processes and options available to them
help them feel able to give their views and wishes about their care and support needs
work with them so that they are able to make their own decisions
support and represent them when appropriate, and to challenge decisions made if it is felt that their views have not been taken into account
This right is also extended to carers, for instance those who provide care to relatives or friends.

Healthwatch & Social Care

Healthwatch West Berkshire is a local consumer champion for health and social care services.  It gives children, young people and adults across West Berkshire a powerful voice and works to help people get the best out of their local health and social care services through influencing the delivery and design of them.
People rarely speak up, for fear of repercussions or because they don’t think they can make a difference.   Healthwatch West Berkshire is working in the community to gather views and experiences of patients, service users and the community as a whole on the quality of the health and social care services, and taking it to those who deliver and commission services.
Healthwatch West Berkshire is independent from the services you use, and it represents an opportunity for you to ensure health and social care services in your local area really meet your needs.
Share your views, get your voice heard!
Tel: 01635 886 210
Website: www.healthwatchwestberkshire.co.uk   Email: contact@healthwatchwestberkshire.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/healthwatchwestberkshire Twitter: www.twitter.com/HealthWWBerks  

Young people’s Mental Health

seAp provides Advocacy to any young person receiving treatment or care from Berkshire CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service).
We can help you to have your voice heard in decisions relating to your treatment or care, and to better understand the support you receive. This includes:
Representing your wishes and views
Attending meetings with you, including CPAs and Reviews
Asking questions on your behalf
The service is confidential and you will be supported by an Advocate independent from any service such as CAMHS or Social Care.

Self Advocacy Groups

Self-Advocacy means speaking up and speaking out for your rights. Self-advocacy helps to ensure that people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or other difficulties have the right to control their own life and make their own decisions.
Self-advocacy groups can:
Bring people together to share ideas and support
Organise training for their members, or speak to other groups about self-advocacy
Be a powerful voice to local authorities and service providers about the changes they want to make in their communities
Be a way for people to have fun and make friends
seAp operates and supports Self-Advocacy Groups in a number of areas:
Be Heard
A self-advocacy group for people with learning disabilities in Bracknell Forest. Members meet weekly and are involved in a broad and varied range of activities; delivering training to social workers, participating in local consultations, reviewing Council policies, developing Easy-read materials, and driving forward campaigns about issues they feel strongly about.

Independent Health Complaints

Do you want to complain about your NHS care or treatment?
The National Health Service (NHS) works hard to treat everyone properly and promptly. Most people using the NHS are happy with their treatment, but sometimes things can go wrong.
By raising your concerns you can help put things right and the NHS can learn from your experience.
Independent Health Complaints Advocacy is a free, independent advocacy service that can help you make a complaint about any aspect of your NHS care or treatment. This includes treatment in a private hospital or care home that is funded by the NHS.

Independent Mental Health

When someone is admitted to hospital they can be detained under the Mental Health Act. This can be very distressing, and sometimes people who are being detained feel powerless and unable to ask questions or get information.
Independent advocacy can help. The support of a trained advocate can help someone understand:
Why they have been detained
Explain their rights under the Mental Health Act
Ensure their views and wishes are taken into account by professional staff involved in their care and treatment.

Independent Mental Capacity

Your rights to advocacy under the Mental Capacity Act
When someone is considered not capable of making their own decisions, it is still important that their views and wishes are heard by those involved in their care and treatment.
That is why local authorities are required to provide people who have been assessed as lacking capacity with access to an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (an IMCA) when decisions are being made about them.

Your Liberty Safeguards

Your right to an advocate under the Deprivation of Liberty (DoLS) Safeguards
Sometimes a hospital or care home might feel that a vulnerable person (who lacks capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005) needs to be restricted in order to provide treatment or care which is necessary to protect them from harm. This is known as ‘deprivation of liberty’.
DoLS safeguards exist to provide a legal framework for people who find themselves in this situation and to ensure that they have access to independent advocacy to support and represent them through the assessment process and safeguard their rights.
Specialist advocates known as a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (DoLS IMCA), work with people who have been deprived of their liberty. A DoLS IMCA is independent of hospitals, care homes and funding bodies.

Learning Disabilities Support
Advocacy for adults with learning disabilities
People with learning disabilities sometimes need more support to get their views and wishes heard. It can be particularly hard to understand what someone is telling us if they do not use words to communicate.
Advocacy means to speak up for someone. With the help of an advocate people with learning disabilites can gain control over their lives, make their own choices about what happens to them and be as independent as possible.

Disability Benefit Support

About Disability Benefits Support Advocacy
Where funding can be secured, face-to-face disability benefits advocacy support may be made available in your area. The value of this is well recognised, and the video below highlights its impact upon one of seAp’s former clients. However, as it is a non-statutory community service, it is not within the scope of Local Authorities to commission this. Unfortunately, there are currently no seAp teams which are able to offer this type of advocacy support as a face-to-face service.

Community Advocacy

seAp Community Advocacy is a specialist service which supports adults who are most vulnerable, or who find themselves at a particularly challenging point in their lives.
Our professional advocates enable people without the right support around them to have their voice heard when:decisions are being taken about their health and social care support is needed to make informed choices about their life
Our advocates are skilled in providing support around issues relating to:
a person in a vulnerable situation
a person subject to a safeguarding alert
mental health illness or distress
learning disabilities
conditions on the autistic spectrum
caring responsibilities
an older person aged 65+ 
physical disabilities
sensory impairments
dementia, fluctuating mental capacity or acquired brain injury
Anyone can make a referral. If you need any help or advice before doing so, we can be contacted via phone, e-mail or text, and we will be happy to assist.
seAp Community Advocacy services are free and completely independent from local authority social services and the NHS.

Help for Deaf people

RAD promotes equality for Deaf people through the provision of accessible services. We have been working with Sign Language users and promoting Deaf people’s rights since 1841. 
We provide advocacy in a client’s first or preferred language; British Sign Language (BSL) or other preferred visual communication such as Signed Supported English (SSE), Makaton, or Deafblind manual/hands on, and not through interpretation.
All our Advocates are Deaf themselves or fluent in BSL and are able to adjust their communication to meet the needs of the people we work with.
Please check the advocacy provision in your area to find out how we may be able to support you.

Your Rights, Speaking Out

Self-Advocacy means speaking up and speaking out for your rights. Self-advocacy helps to ensure that people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or other difficulties have the right to control their own life and make their own decisions.
Self-advocacy groups can:
Bring people together to share ideas and support
Organise training for their members, or speak to other groups about self-advocacy
Be a powerful voice to local authorities and service providers about the changes they want to make in their communities
Be a way for people to have fun and make friends
seAp operates and supports Self-Advocacy Groups in a number of areas:

Community Mental Health

Community Mental Health Advocacy
Being diagnosed with a mental illness, or experiencing mental health distress, can sometimes mean that your views and wishes are not taken seriously. This can mean that you are not offered the opportunities and choices you would like.
If you feel you already experience discrimination and exclusion due to your ethnic or cultural background, physical disability, gender, sexuality or age, having a mental health problem can become another barrier to getting your voice heard on issues that matter to you.
Community mental health advocacy could help you to become more involved in the decisions that are made about your life. Find out more about our confidentiality policy.
We provide community mental health advocacy to adults (18 – 65) and in some areas, to older adults (65+). You could be in hospital or living in the community.