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Advocacy in Mind

Independent Advocacy Services
Rochdale & District Mind
Rochdale, Bury, Tameside & Glossop

Referral Information – Mental Health Advocacy

Updated – 23/11/2011
Review Date – 23/11/2012

Availability

  • The Advocacy Service is available to people registered with a GP in the boroughs of Rochdale, Bury, Tameside & Glossop and operates Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.  There is also a local protocol where we will see people from Oldham & Stockport if they are inpatients on acute mental health wards in the above areas.
  • When advocates are not available there is also a 24 hour answer phone which is checked on a daily basis during opening hours. 

Criteria:

  • The Mental Health Act 1983 provides the statutory right to Independent Mental Health Act Advocacy (IMHAA) to all “qualifying” patients.  This became law in April 2009.
  • “Qualifying” patients refers to people who are subject to compulsion under the Act (except sections 4, 5, 135 & 136) and includes service users in the community who are subject to Supervised Community Treatment (also referred to as Community Treatment Orders) and Guardianship.  Advocacy in Mind will provide advocacy to all “qualifying” patients as defined by the Act. People subject to compulsion covers all age groups.
  • The advocacy service is also contracted to provide a generic mental health advocacy service and will accept referrals for anyone who is:
    - An informal patient on an acute mental health ward.
    - In the community and Care Coordinated through the Care Programme Approach (CPA).

Unmet need

We are not able to provide advocacy to people who do not meet this criteria as we do not have the resources or funding to do so.  We believe that these people should have access to advocacy and we will continue to push for further funding to meet this need.  We will endeavour to signpost these people to an alternative service where possible.

Referral

We operate an open referral system and will accept referrals from mental health professionals, service users (self referral), carers, family and other agencies.

To make a referral please call the advocacy office and ask to speak to an advocate and they will guide you through the process.

Rochdale & Bury team – 01706 752344
Tameside & Glossop team – 0161 3397928
Alternatively, we have referral forms on line.
www.rochdalemind.org.uk  

Advocates will also visit the inpatient wards on a regular basis to raise awareness and to pick up new referrals.

Referral Response Times:

  • We will endeavour to respond to all referrals within 5 working days.
  • A response can include a phone call to acknowledge the referral and the next contact or first meeting will be arranged.
  • Depending on the level of need and our availability we will arrange to see you either the same day or within 2 weeks.
  • Inpatients subject to the Mental Health Act will be guaranteed a visit within 5 working days.
  • Some work will be dictated by meeting dates arranged by others. Early referral is important to ensure access.  
  • Cases will be prioritized based on need.  Each individual’s needs are fundamentally important and ideally it is not for us, as a service, to prioritise one persons needs over another.  However, we are a small resource and need to be effective at meeting those most in need.
  • We appreciate that interpretation of need is subjective. Examples of priority need are as follows:
    a) An informal patient who has no other support and is due to be discharged and has a variety of needs in relation to housing and/or debts and benefits.
    b) Non instructed cases where there is a lack of mental capacity.
    c) Where people are less able to self advocate.
    d) Someone who has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act

Please note:

  • A waiting list can be used when demand for the service is high and will only be used when absolutely necessary.
  • We are not resourced to provide a crisis service although we recognise that people often are in crisis.
  • High demand will be communicated through the advocacy quarterly reports and meetings with the Commissioners of the services.
  • If the service user is assessed as lacking capacity to deal with the referring issue they should be referred at least 10 working days before an advocate can attend a meeting related to the referral.  It is important that the Advocate has time to meet the service user in person and has time to gather information relevant to the case.  A non-instructed advocacy approach would then be used.
  • In some cases referrals will be accepted outside of the 10 day rule as we recognise that there will be cases where this isn’t possible and we would not want to deny these people access to the service.
  • Where the advocacy issues include work that is within the remit of a Care Coordinator we will seek consent to direct this work to them.  
  • Early referral - please refer to the service as early as possible. We do not provide “tick box” or “tokenistic” advocacy. This can occur in cases where the referral is too late for us to have any meaningful involvement.