© 2002 Archives of Disease in Childhood
LEADING ARTICLE
Health care
Health services: who are the best advocates for children?
Department of Child Health, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff UK.
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr E Webb, Senior Lecturer, Department of Child Health, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff CF14 4XN, UK
"Advocacy is not about saying what’s best for a child or young person but about enabling that child or young person to come to informed decisions about matters which are affecting their lives"
Keywords: health service; advocacy
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
This quotation comes from the evidence given by the Children’s Society in Wales to the Carlisle review into safeguards for children and young people treated and cared for by the NHS in Wales. This usage of the term is now commonplace in local authorities and voluntary agencies, in which advocacy is a process firmly focused at an individual level. It is at odds with the definitions provided in the Oxford English Dictionary:
- Advocacy: "the function of an advocate".
- Advocate: "one who pleads, intercedes, or speaks for another".
This shift in usage leads is not only confusing, but devalues the process of speaking on behalf of others. For the purposes of this paper I will stick to the Oxford English Dictionary definition of advocacy and use the somewhat unsatisfactory term of "self advocacy" to describe the process by which individuals or groups are supported and empowered to speak
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