Over the years I have spent a number of periods in psychiatric hospitals and had contacts with many mental health professionals. My very first contact with an advocacy worker was many years ago when I was in hospital a long way from where I lived and my wife had a long distance to travel to see me. The advocacy worker was the first person I met who was sympathetic. By listening to me they were able to understand how I felt and take steps to improve things for me.
On another occasion I was being bullied in hospital and found it very hard to bear. The advocacy worker told me that it was my right to move wards and that was a light bulb moment for me, knowing that I could ask this. I was able to be moved and things became much easier.
I still use an advocacy worker to come to psychiatrist appointments with me. I have noticed that having someone there with me makes a huge difference to the way the psychiatrist treats me. She doesn’t listen to me when I’m on my own and just looks at my medication. But when the advocate is there she’s as nice as ninepence and takes the trouble to find out how I’m feeling. I meet with my advocacy worker beforehand to talk about what the meeting may be like and I tell the advocacy worker what I want to say. In the meeting they will prompt me if things are difficult and remind me what I had planned to say. My advocacy worker being there makes me feel more confident and more able to represent myself.
