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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2022

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Summary

This book is about advocacy – particularly, but not only, for people who have learning disabilities or mental health difficulties. The practical experience we will draw on comes mainly from Scotland where new and important things have been happening in this field. Here are two examples of the work we will be writing about.

The first is summed up in a big book – a Personal Care Plan, or ‘PCP’ in the jargon of social work and community nursing. Prepared by an advocate, with help from colleagues in other services, this book is packed with words, pictures, medical prescriptions, names and addresses. It speaks for a young woman – let's call her Sandra – in her mid-twenties.

Sandra has stunted limbs and cannot walk, sit up or feed herself. It takes two people, using a specially made hoist, to lift her from a bed to a chair, or in and out of the swimming pool she visits regularly. She lives at home with her parents. Those who help them to care for her – 32 staff from 13 different agencies see her in a typical week – thought she was unable to speak or to understand anything they said. But her advocate, who works for a local agency, found by listening carefully to her and her parents that she has more than 20 words and sounds that have meanings that she understands pretty well. Indeed her grandmother, who has always loved her dearly, conducts long conversations with her in a language no one else quite understands. Sandra also has hopes and fears, friends she likes to be with, and ambitions for the future.

Her personal care plan explains these and many other things: the foods she can and cannot eat, the movements that hurt her, the medicines she needs and much else. It shows, with photographs, how to lift and move her, and how to take her for a swim.

Equally important, it has brought together 32 nurses, social workers and professional carers – most of whom had never met before – and helped them to get to know each other and to agree on the best ways to help Sandra achieve the things she wants to do.

Type
Chapter
Information
Speaking to Power
Advocacy for Health and Social Care
, pp. 1 - 6
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Introduction
  • David Donnison
  • Book: Speaking to Power
  • Online publication: 05 July 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781847427434.002
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Save book to Dropbox

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  • Introduction
  • David Donnison
  • Book: Speaking to Power
  • Online publication: 05 July 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781847427434.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • David Donnison
  • Book: Speaking to Power
  • Online publication: 05 July 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.46692/9781847427434.002
Available formats
×