Search results for ‘Subject term:"learning disabilities"’ Sort:
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Cloudy outlook
- Author:
- SIMMONS Ken
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 3.2.94, 1994, pp.20-21.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Discusses the findings of a research study by the Bristol Advocacy Project; the aim of which was to see what citizen advocacy looks like from the inside, through looking at the ways services reacted to the involvement of advocates.
Pleading the case for advocates
- Author:
- EATON Lynn
- Journal article citation:
- Search, Winter 1993, pp.14-16.
- Publisher:
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Reports on research carried out as part of the Bristol Advocacy Project, which looked at the practical problems faced by advocates and the partners they support.
With a little help from my friends: a report on advocacy development: 1
- Author:
- CROSSLEY Diana
- Journal article citation:
- Mental Handicap, 17(1), March 1989, pp.23-24.
- Publisher:
- British Institute of Mental Handicap
This article describes an advocacy service carried out in a day centre.
Making the right match: advocacy in action
- Author:
- MORRIS P.
- Journal article citation:
- Community Living, 1(3), 1987, pp.8-9.
- Publisher:
- Hexagon Publishing
Describes the work of the Sheffield Advocacy Project.
Speaking up about advocacy: findings from a partnership research project
- Authors:
- CHAPMAN Melanie, et al
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40(1), March 2012, pp.71-80.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Advocacy is about speaking up for yourself and your rights or speaking up for other people. There are 4 types of advocacy: self-advocacy; citizen advocacy; professional advocacy; and peer advocacy. The aim of this research project was to explore people’s understandings of advocacy and to identify gaps in advocacy provision for people with learning disabilities and their families. The study method used a partnership research approach carried out by a research team consisting of people with learning disabilities and people without learning disabilities. Four focus groups were conducted with different stakeholders: 17 people with learning disabilities; 9 family carers; 6 direct support workers; and 6 service managers and commissioners. The findings are organised under the following themes: understandings of advocacy; sources of advocacy; need for advocacy; barriers to advocacy; and other influences on advocacy. The findings show that some people are confused about the different types of advocacy. Advocacy could be improved: by having more information about what support there is; by increasing choice and control in people’s lives; by changing the way services think; and by having advocates who do not work for services and who have time to get to know a person well.
New media advocates
- Author:
- MICKEL Andrew
- Journal article citation:
- Community Care, 20.1.11, 2011, p.24.
- Publisher:
- Reed Business Information
Multimedia advocacy for people with learning disabilities, a method developed by the Rix center is explained. Multimedia advocacy uses widely available technologies and software, such as Powerpoint and digital cameras, to help users create portfolios that explain what they are like and what they want from the outside world.
In conversation with Pat Charlesworth
- Author:
- HOLMAN Andrew
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 38(4), December 2010, pp.242-244.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
Pat Charlesworth is a self-advocate and a campaigner. She is one of the London representatives on the National Forum of People with Learning Disabilities. The National Forum is a government-funded body set up as part of the Valuing People programme in order to tell the Government how the programme is working from the perspective of a service user. This interview describes her childhood history, how she became involved in advocacy work, and her feelings about the Valuing People programme and the future of the National Forum. Pat Charlesworth was frequently in trouble as a child, but then started voluntary work which increased her confidence and led to her involvement with advocacy. She is unsure about the ability of the National Forum to tackle the current issues in the spending review and the cuts this will inevitably bring, and wants a National Forum that could bring all the self-advocacy groups and organisations of people with learning disabilities together to speak with one voice to fight the cuts and keep services safe.
Exploring advocacy for people with learning disabilities
- Author:
- TILLEY Liz
- Journal article citation:
- Learning Disability Today, 10(10), December 2010, pp.30-33.
- Publisher:
- Pavilion
- Place of publication:
- Hove
Advocacy plays an important role in supporting people with learning disabilities to ‘have a voice’. It can also facilitate individuals to participate more fully in decisions affecting their own lives, and to support individuals to work together to improve the situation and collective experience of people with learning disabilities. This article describes research focusing on 2 advocacy organisations in the southeast of England. The main aim of the research was to explore the practice of advocacy for people with learning disabilities. The research included interviews with members of the 2 groups and observation of internal and external meetings. The results provide a sense of how different stakeholders talk about and view the practice of advocacy, demonstrating that: advocacy means different things to different people; support workers had a tendency to under-represent their roles; self-advocates were happy with their support workers; the groups operated in different way to People First; and the commissioning and funding of organisations was problematic. The article also discusses how the commissioning process is increasingly tied to monitoring the impact of advocacy, and the issues this raises around power and control for advocacy organisations. It concludes by arguing that these funding practices place pressure on advocacy groups, making it ever more difficult for them to articulate some of the real and important complexities involved in their practice.
'Who did what?': a participatory action research project to increase group capacity for advocacy
- Authors:
- GARCIA-IRIARTE E., et al
- Journal article citation:
- Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 22(1), January 2009, pp.10-22.
- Publisher:
- Wiley
This participatory action research (PAR) project involved a collaboration with an American self-advocacy group of people with intellectual disabilities, People First, that sought to build group capacity for advocacy. The study used a focus group, sustained participatory engagement and a reflexive process to gather qualitative and quantitative data over 15 months. All methods were adapted to ensure accessibility and to support active participation. The collaboration generated action products, including tools to support advocacy and an accessible action and reflection process. Research findings suggest that active participation is essential for group control, but alone does not automatically lead to control. The manner in which supports are provided, including member supports, advisor supports, strategy supports and systems supports, influences the extent to which members have a sense of control over decision making and participation and thus, improved capacity for advocacy. A PAR approach can be used to increase a group's capacity for advocacy and meaningfully involve self-advocacy groups in participatory research that leads to change.
When advocacy is powerful it is also vulnerable
- Author:
- BRANDON Althea
- Journal article citation:
- Community Living, 21(1), 2007, p.25.
- Publisher:
- Hexagon Publishing
The author briefly tells the story of two advocacy projects, showing both the power of advocacy and its vulnerability - that when successful they often cause problems for those in power. The projects highlighted are SHIELD, which worked directly with disabled people carrying out advocacy and care planning work and LANCE which work with disabled homeless people.