My brothers and I first heard about advocacy when our sister Kate’s home was in the first stages of closing. My sister had a learning disability and needed support to navigate the system.
My first introduction to my sister’s advocate was by way of a charming letter of introduction to say that she had met my sister and explaining how she would be helping and working with Kate. When I met them together, I could see straight away that my sister and her advocate had developed an excellent relationship. We were at Kate’s home, and I could see straight away that Kate was very fond of her advocate, and that the two of them were getting on really well. It was refreshing to hear the advocate talking with my sister in a way that was natural and normal.
After investigating two possible homes for Kate to move to (both too far away from us as family), the advocate told me on Christmas Eve that they had found out about a home in a nearby town with a vacancy on the ground floor. At this time there were communication problems with the local authority, so in a letter to them, I felt obliged to say, “Had it not been for our advocate’s kind, concerned help and reassurance before Christmas, I would have been frantically worried by now.” Kate’s advocate even gave me her mobile phone number and told me not to hesitate to ring her if there were any problems.
On 27 January 2003 Kate moved into her new home. She lived there happily until she died in 2018. If it wasn’t for the advocate my sister would never have lived where she did. The advocate not only found the house but checked out that everything was suitable for her. We couldn’t have done this without her help and support.
In a survey for Kate’s new home, I said: “My brothers agree with me that we couldn’t ask for a more suitable home for Kate. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate in the accommodation being discovered for us by Kate’s advocate.”
That advocate was Gail Petty, our advocacy programme lead at NDTi. Our advocacy team all have first hand experience of advocacy in action.
Maggie got back in touch with Gail after Kate died and they met up recently to remember Kate, look at photos and hear about Kate’s life in the intervening years.
Gail said: “It was lovely to meet up with Maggie and hear how happily Kate had lived at her new home, and of course to see all the photographs.
“It’s not often that we get to hear how the little things we do as advocates have a lasting impact for the person we were advocate for and for those who love them. And, it’s great to know that we were able to make a difference.”
For Gail, it was a moment of realising that the impact of one short amount of advocacy input can last a lifetime.
