Benefits of self-advocacy highlighted at AGM

LAST Thursday’s Clare Federation of People with Special Needs AGM heard a presentation that outlined how self-advocacy would benefit people with intellectual disabilities.
The report was compiled by service users Joe McGrath (Scariff), chairperson of the Independent National Advocacy Platform and Ger Minogue (Miltown Malbay), along with service professionals Rob Hopkins and Marie Woulfe.
“If people depend on an organisation to do your advocating for you, you’re going to end up depending on an individual to start sorting some of your requirements,” Mr McGrath explained. “If people can speak independently and speak on their own behalf, they will go farther but we also have to keep in mind the people who are not so lucky to be able to advocate for themselves,” he added.
Joe feels working in the community helps people with intellectual disabilities to meaningfully integrate. He works with Seedsavers in Scariff. “If you’re out working in the community and you’re holding down a job, the job gives you that bit of financial independence. I’m also living in my own council house in Scariff, which I rent,” he noted.
Ger Minogue has also found that additional independence is helping his quality of life.  “I’m based in Ennis with the Brothers of Charity. I’m living independently now in a new apartment in Ennis, Monday to Friday and I’m home with my parents in Miltown Malbay at the weekends,” he explained. “I have more space and I can live my own life,” he said.
Rob Hopkins outlined how an independent advocacy group in the southeast of Ireland meets with local and national politicians regularly to push their own agenda.
“Those guys could see that there was real kudos for their independent advocating. They were meeting Minister of State, Katherine Lynch and they were in cross-stakeholder groups at a Government level. People said in our own research, that this is the way ahead. An independent national group is going to give us that real genuine independent voice,” Mr Hopkins maintained.
He believes services cannot advocate independently for service users. “We have carried out research that demonstrated advocacy within services is compromised because it is the services trying to support people to say they want a better service. It doesn’t really work. The advocate supports are all employed by the services.” 
Independent advocacy can deliver what people with intellectual disabilities themselves require. “What we saw from learning about other advocate groups is that they are organising speed-dating events, for example, along with job clubs and social clubs. Things that people were saying they really wanted. Places they could go and not have staff looking over their shoulder. We spoke to three sets of people including the CEOs, the supporters of the advocacy and we spoke to the advocates themselves. Along the line, they all said that they recognised they were compromised but that there wasn’t an independent advocate system in Ireland. This is the best that they can do at the moment,” he said.
Inclusion Ireland CEO Paddy Connolly addressed last Thursday’s AGM. Speaking prior to it, he outlined his support for independent advocacy.
“We want to be in the background with this type of initiative. It’s important these initiatives are driven by people with intellectual disabilities themselves. One of our roles is at a policy level, to be pushing for this more,” he said.
“One of the difficulties at the moment is that people are tied to services. There are no individual budgets. Funding comes directly to a service to provide large group activities to large groups of people. People aren’t recognised as individuals within these services, as regards their own budget. The freedom for people to move out into their own homes is slow and cumbersome. Inclusion Ireland is concerned that a lot of the self-advocacy happens within these services. There’s very little independent self-advocacy and there’s no funding from Government. There’s €1.4 billion budget expenditure but there’s nothing in that budget for independent self-advocacy.  We have a small self-advocacy support unit but there’s very little we can do in terms of resources,” Mr Connolly explained.
The presentation was warmly received at the AGM. “Our intention at the federation meeting was to explain some of the research we have done. We have identified that advocacy is happening in other counties in an independent way. Nationally, it is happening, with Joe (McGrath) being on the steering group. In Clare, we’re looking to do something similar,” Mr Hopkins stated.
“Exactly what that is going to look like, we don’t really know. It’s going to depend on other people with learning disabilities coming forward and maybe some support from families,” he concluded.