What is Advocacy?

The word advocacy usually means different things to different people – ranging from holding a bake sale for a local school to helping a patient fight for their legal rights. Webster’s Dictionary defines an advocate as both a noun and verb.

So you may have been an advocate and not even realized it! Being an advocate for an issue means making your voice heard – fighting for what you believe is right.

There are different types of advocacy.

Self-advocacy is the process that involves identifying the obstacles we face as a patient; developing the strategies to overcome them and then putting the plan into action.

Public policy or legislative advocacy is the act of trying to influence public policy at the state and federal levels through a wide range of activities.

Keep in mind that the process of an ordinary citizen providing feedback to legislators and policymakers is the foundation of our democracy and it is often easy to do.

• Getting access to mental health services

• The quality or kind of mental health services received

• Right that have been violated (protections under the Mental Health Act or other legislation, discrimination, etc.)

• A work situation (hiring and firing, being treated unfairly, etc.)

• Social assistance (eligibility, losing assistance, being assigned to the wrong kind of assistance, etc.)

• Any other situation that needs to be changed in order to have a better quality of life (such as public education to eliminate stigma about mental health, social assistance and/or poverty and class issues, etc.)

WHY IS ADVOCACY IMPORTANT? FIND OUT NOW.