Non-instructed advocacy

Non-instructed advocacy happens when there are issues with a person’s capacity perhaps due to dementia, or limited communication due to a physical disability or a learning disability. In such situations a non-instructed advocate seeks to uphold their advocacy partner’s rights and ensure that decisions are taken with full consideration of their unique preferences, rights and perspectives.

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such as the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT