Spiral Skills - Advocacy Services
Securing
Access to Ordinary Services
Introduction
Spiral Skills is part of a registered charity called Learning First, our services reflect many years experience in the independent advocacy sector.
Spiral Skills is an independent provider of advocacy services to people in a range of health and social care settings in Northumberland, Durham and the North East.
Our current service delivery includes:
- Learning disability services.
- Mental health services.
- Assessment and treatment services.
- Adult and older person long term mental health.
- Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) Services.
- Self-advocacy and service user groups.
For further information on our services, criteria for referrals to both the general advocacy service and the IMCA service plus frequently asked questions, please visit the Spiral Skills website.
What
is an Advocate?
An Advocate
is a person who supports and listens to you. They try to make
sure other people listen to you as well.
They
will:
| • |
Write
letters for you |
| • |
Attend
meetings with you |
| • |
Make
phone calls |
| • |
Support
you to get what you need |
| • |
Find
out what choices you have |
| • |
Explain
things to you |
Who
needs an Advocate?
People
who:
| • |
Have
no-one to speak up for them |
| • |
Might
be being bullied or abused |
| • |
Need
help to have their human rights respected |
| • |
Have
no friends or family who may be able to help them |
| • |
Are
having problems with the help provided for them |
| • |
Might
need an advocate to help them speak up for themselves |
What
is Self-Advocacy?
| • |
Speaking
up for yourself |
| • |
Supporting
each other |
| • |
Friendship |
| • |
Saying
what you would like to be different |
| • |
Making
people listen |
| • |
Respecting
each other |
What
is a Self-Advocacy Group?
A
group of people with disabilities, who get together to
speak up for their rights and change things for the better.
Spiral
Skills can help with:
| • |
Starting
a group |
| • |
Getting
the money to run a self advocacy group |
| • |
Deciding
what you want to do |
| • |
Sorting
out the legal bits |
| • |
Training |
| • |
Helping
you run your group |
Spiral
Skills has friendly staff that will help you with all these
things. As well we already help some groups that you might
like to join. There may be one near your home.
We
work with Northumberland Learning Disability Partnership Board
and support people with learning disabilities on the Northumberland
Users Forum.
We
have recently been awarded a contract to work in County Durham
to provide Citizen Advocacy and support Self-Advocacy. If
you would like more information about our work in Durham please
contact Susan Newson or Lee Wyman on 01740 625225.
If
you need an advocate or know someone that does, contact
Pam Walker or Simon Smith.
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