Happy New Year!.. Better late than never.

Monday

General advocacy duties including a visit to the Mental Health Tribunal. You can read more about MHTs here.

The team welcomed social work students Heather and Kelsey, who will be shadowing our advocacy workers both this week and next.

Tuesday

The first Practice Development of the year featured advocacy worker Chris Waite (stay tuned) presenting some information on sensory impairment and alternate methods of communication. Then all members of the team discussed some plans for the year ahead.

Linda, Cheryl and Ronnie met to discuss the upcoming Get Set & Go course due to take place with Merkland School in March: this included developing a curriculum and designing a workbook. The team went on to consider Disabled Access Day which is taking place over the 10^th-12^th March. It was agreed that we would inform all service users of the day and what events are happening locally.

Wednesday

The Advocacy Conference planning team met for the first time to discuss the event pencilled in to the calendar for later in the year, some exciting updates to follow.

Thursday

Some member of the team met with Neil Ross (Intergratis Consulting) to discuss the evaluation methods and process that staff members use at Ceartas, and their opinions on what works/what we could be doing better.

Friday

A member of the team accompanied a young man to a PIP Assessment. As well as going with the person, an advocacy worker will meet the person beforehand to discuss what to expect from this process and help them prepare for the assessment. Read more here.

Today the team bid farewell to Advocacy Worker Chris Waite, who is moving on to work at the Scottish Refugee Council based in Glasgow. We wish you all the best, Chris!