Areas of Work

A lot of our work is spent advocating for people at meetings in a range of places…

We recognise that being alone in the midst of a health, social work or care home meeting is not an easy place to be, especially if you are not feeling 100% or things seem as if they are getting on top of you.

This work can involve preparing for the meeting by discussing with you the questions you want to ask, advocating during meetings or spending time afterwards to discuss the next steps you want to take.

The Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 (ASPA) is a piece of legislation put n place to protect people from being harmed. This is because some people may find it more difficult to stop harm happening to them.

The Act calls people in this situation ‘adults at risk’. Unlike the Mental Health Act, ASPA does not give someone a legal right to an advocacy worker but it says that the council has a duty to consider providing appropriate services, including independent advocacy, to support adults at risk if they feel action under the Act is necessary.

An advocacy worker can work alongside you during any investigations or proceedings under ASPA to make sure that other people are listening to what you are saying and what is important to you. The advocacy worker will make sure that you have the right information needed to make informed choices and will help you access legal representation if required.

If you want more detailed information on the Act then you can contact us here at the office.

The Adults with Incapacity Act aims to help people (age 16 and over) who lack capacity to act or make some or all decisions for themselves. It covers people whose incapacity is caused by a mental disorder, such as dementia, learning disability, acquired brain injury, or severe mental illness.

The Act introduced arrangements for making decisions about personal welfare and managing the finances and property of individuals whose capacity to make or carry out specific decisions is impaired. It allows carers and others to have authority to act and make decisions on their behalf.

An advocacy worker can help you through proceedings under the act in a number of ways; for example, if you are still able to make decisions for yourself we can give you information about setting up a power of attorney for the future; if someone is no longer able to make their own decisions then the advocacy worker can support them to represent their views to others or represent these views on their behalf, in any case conferences or discussions with other professionals.

If you would like more detailed information on the Act, more information on advocacy or you would like an advocacy worker to help you then please contact us at our office.

If you should become subject to Mental Health Legislation you have a legal right to advocacy support.

Being detained in hospital can be a distressing time. Our advocacy workers can help to make this a little bit easier for you. It can be difficult to tell people what you want when you are feeling unwell so our advocates will work with you through this and we can either support you to express your views or do this on your behalf.

If you are being treated under the Mental Health Act then you may have come across such things as:

• Mental Health Tribunal
• An Emergency Detention
• A Short-Term Detention
• A Compulsory Treatment Order

If you would like further information on the above please contact us at the office, or if you have an advocacy worker they can go over this information with you.

If you haven’t already done so then we can help you appoint a Solicitor who will be there to represent you at a Mental Health Tribunal. We can also be present at the Tribunal to support you to express your views and if you are unhappy with an aspect of your treatment, we can support you to challenge this.

A move to a Care Home shouldn’t be a decision you have to make on your own and at Ceartas we can help in different ways to make this move a little bit easier.

Making a move to a Care Home can be a very difficult decision not only for the person involved but for family and friends as well. Everyone may have their own opinion on what is best for the person but what about the person themselves? Ceartas believe it is important for people to be able to express their own views on a move to long-term and when can help the person concerned to do this through our advocacy service.

If someone has lived independently for the majority of their life and are then faced with the prospect of long-term care this can be an overwhelming period with lots of questions: How do I fund this? Where can I stay? What happens to my house? All of these are valid questions and ones that a member of the Ceartas team can provide you with information on. We can provide you with up-to-date information on long-term care options and a comprehensive list of East Dunbartonshire Care Homes.

Once you have decided where you would like to stay and all of the practical things have been taken care of our involvement doesn’t have to end there. Once you have moved into the Care Home you will have a review meeting to find out how you have settled into the home and if your needs are being met. Ceartas can support you in this meeting by meeting with you beforehand and finding out your views.

If you live in Local Authority housing and have difficulty in expressing your views to the housing department on your situation then we can assist you with this. A member of the team at Ceartas will meet with you and discuss your current situation and find out what it is you need assistance with.

While we are not trained specifically on Housing legislation we can undertake joint working with the Citizens Advice Bureau in order to support you as much as possible.

Visit the Citizen’s Advice Bureau Website

Claiming benefits that you are entitled to can be a daunting prospect with a process that seems to consist of lots of form filling.

At Ceartas, we don’t complete benefit forms however we work closely with other agencies like the local Citizens Advice Bureau and other local services who can give practical assistance.

How do we help? We assist by chatting with you over the phone or in person to establish what your needs are and access the appropriate information.

If necessary we will try and identify additional specialist help and can accompany you so that you don’t face that visit alone.

Whatever the request we will do our best to make sure you get the information when you need it.