Advocacy

Advocacy is acting, speaking, or writing to promote and protect the human rights and welfare of a vulnerable person or group of people. Examples of vulnerable people include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, children and their families, refugees, the elderly, the LGBTQIA community, the homeless, and people with disability. Advocacy services for people with disability in Australia are funded by The National Disability Advocacy Program (NDAP) which ensures there is no cost for participants or service providers to access advocacy Services.

• Individual advocacy - a one-on-one advocacy aimed to prevent or address instances of discrimination or abuse to a person with disability
• Systemic advocacy - advocacy to influence or secure long-term changes to ensure the collective rights and interests of people with disability
• Family advocacy - when a parent or family member advocates with and on behalf of a family member with disability
• Group advocacy - advocacy for a group of people with disability, such as a group of people living in shared accommodation
• Citizen advocacy - where community volunteers advocate for a person with a disability over the long-term, supported by a citizen advocacy organisation
• legal advocacy - where a lawyer provides legal representation, pursues positive changes to legislation, or gives legal advice to people with disability about discrimination and human rights.

• Provide direct advocacy on behalf of a person
• Provide information and advice so a person can advocate for themselves (e.g., deal with a landlord, go to court, deal with police, get legal advice, negotiate deals, deal with problems at work or education, deal with guardianship and financial matters)
• Connect a participant to relevant services e.g., solicitor
• Help a participant work through problems
• Help a participant make formal actions on matters e.g., assist to make a complaint with the anti-discrimination board.

• Provide counselling
• Make decisions for another person
• Provide mediation
• Provide case management.

• Upon commencing services, new participants are informed of the role of advocates, their right to use advocates and advocacy services, and how to contact and involve advocacy agencies
• Participants are supported if they choose to self-advocate, change advocates, or withdraw their authority for an advocate
• If a participant needs an advocate and a family or carer cannot provide it, we will attempt to introduce an advocate chosen by the participant
• If a participant requests one of our workers to be an advocate, their authority to act is recorded along with the issues important to the participant and their goals
• We will work with the advocate chosen by a participant and involve the advocate in all areas of the participant’s service planning and decision making
• Whenever a participant is assisted by an advocate, we will document this.

PWDA – People with Disability Australia:

Phone: 1800 422 016

Email: pwd@pwd.org.au

Mental Health Advocacy Service:

The Mental Health Advocacy Service (MHAS) is a state-wide specialist service of Legal Aid NSW. We provide free legal information, advice and assistance about mental health law.

You can telephone for an appointment to come and speak to a lawyer at our Burwood office. 

Phone: 02 9745 4277

Intellectual Disability Rights Service

The Intellectual Disability Rights Service provides services from four locations in NSW. The head office is base in Redfern. The regional offices provide support for people with intellectual disability at police stations, courts and other locations for criminal matters. These are services of the Criminal Justice Support Network.

Phone: 1800 666 611 

Email: info@idrs.org.au

Website: www.idrs.org.au

Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association

The Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association of NSW (MDAA) is the peak body for all people in NSW with disability and their families and carers, with a particular focus on those from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD)/ Non-English Speaking (NES) background with disability.

Phone: 1800629072

Email: ses@mdaa.org.au

Postal: PO Box 144 Hurstville NSW 1481

Alternatively, you can use The National Disability Advocacy Program Finder, which is available online at https://disabilityadvocacyfinder.dss.gov.au/disability/ndap.