Steffan Phillips, Community & Independent Mental Health Advocate at Advocacy Support Cymru, Swansea

I came to independent advocacy through being a family advocate for my autistic younger brother who also has a learning disability. I have been a Community and Independent Mental Health Advocate for two years now, and during that time, I don’t often refer explicitly to Human Rights – it tends to be the Mental Health or Capacity Acts that I turn to. And I rarely quote from the 1998 UK Human Rights Act.

So, at the start of this blog, I’d like to pose myself two questions:

1. Are Human Rights relevant to my practice?

2. Should I refer more often to the 1998 UK Human Rights Act during conversations with clients and care professionals?

A human has a right to: 

·       Life

·       Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment

·       Freedom from slavery and forced labour

·       Liberty and security

·       A fair trial

·       No punishment without law  

·       Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence

·       Freedom of thought, belief and religion

·       Freedom of expression

·       Freedom of assembly and association

·       Marry and start a family

·       Protection from discrimination

·       Peaceful enjoyment of your property

·       Education

·       Participate in free elections

In fact, now that I look at them I see obvious examples of my practice that relate directly to one or more of the human rights listed in the Act:

Every time I explain to a client that a treatment should never be administered by coercion or duplicity or without their full consent, unless there is an appropriate legal framework in place. Am I not in this instance advocating for my client’s human right to freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment?

Every time I support a client to challenge a care professional who is unlawfully controlling how they come and go from their place of residence, am I not helping them exercise their human right to liberty and security?

Isn’t insisting that adequate time is provided for a client to process information contained in reports that are submitted to a Mental Health Tribunal, actually the same as exercising a client’s human right to a fair trial? And isn’t insisting that time is given to a client to prepare for an important decision-making meeting, in fact an appeal to the very same principle?

The more I reflect on this subject, the more examples come to mind:

One of my clients wanted extra funds to pay for their weekly coffees because prices had gone up so much. However because my client is supported by the local authority to manage their finances and because the state of my client’s bedroom was causing issues with staff at their supported living accommodation, their Care Coordinator decided to veto extra funds until my client: cleaned up their bedroom. I informed my client that the Coordinator did not have authority to withhold finances based on a system of reward and punishment and supported them in successfully challenging the decision. What was this if not upholding my client’s human right to no punishment without law?

And speaking of the law, I regularly use case-law, government acts and guidelines to support clients in bolstering challenges to decisions made about their care. But maybe quoting from the UK Human Rights Act more often might strike a more elemental note. It might help clients appreciate that what they wish to say is not silly, trivial, pointless, or that they are not somehow causing trouble by speaking up about their concerns. I also think that quoting the Act to care professionals might cut to the chase more effectively. It might stop them in their tracks, and focus their minds on the gravity of what is at stake when poor care decisions are made.

So, in writing this blog, the answers to the questions I asked myself at the start have become obvious to me: Human rights are indeed inextricably linked to my practice as a Community and Independent Mental Health Advocate and I think that from now on, I will quote the 1998 UK Human Rights Act regularly to both clients and care professionals.