Advocacy - Ask a Pro Live with Bre August 29th 2019

Hello everyone and welcome to our Ask a Pro:Live event on the topic of Advocacy! 

We will be starting with the first question right at 7pm!

So before we get started we just want to remind everyone If at all you find this conversation distressing or you feel like you need to talk to someone then it's time to get some help! You can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or use their webchat and email services found on their respective sites. The links can be found here. If you are new here then welcome! Have a quick peek at our community guidelines you can find them here!

Just tagging all the members who liked this initial blog post:

@Sunflower18 @MisoBear @May_ @Hozzles @Bee @ecla34 @xXLexi_Lou122Xx @N1ghtW1ng @WheresMySquishy @scared01 @Tiny_leaf 

Loving reading back through this conversation! 

OK here we go 

I want to welcome the wonderful @Bre-RO to our discussion tonight. 

Many of you have seen Bre around the forums and tonight I am super pumped to hear all about her and her experience in advocacy.

So let's kick off with the first question.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and three fun facts!

Thanks Claire! Let's get straight into it.. 

As many of you know my name is Bre and I've recently joined ReachOut and love it so far. I think why it's such a perfect fit is because everybody who is part of RO is passionate about helping people, building community and talking about things like mental health  

Some facts about me...I love to travel, listen to and see music and be in nature. My favourite landscape is the desert - a fact about me would be that I love to travel and see natural landscapes. The most surreal to date would be the Sahara Desert. My goal is to see all the continents by the time I'm thirty years old - so far I've just got two to go. 

Another fact is that I love to write. Ever since I was a kid I wrote poems and short stories. These days I like to write opinion pieces, mainly because it helps me get things off my chest. To my surprise though last year three reputable media sources published my work! 

Thanks for tagging me @Claire-RO ! 😄

@Bre-RO that's such a cool goal, i hope you get to achieve it! (antarctica might be a bit chilly :P)

So on to why we are here tonight Advocacy, here is the second question for tonight.

@Bre-RO  Can you tell us a bit about your background and why advocacy is an important part of your career?

To give a bit of my background and why advocacy is so important to me. I grew up in a family where there was lots of need for advocacy. My parents both struggled to keep our family above the poverty line and for a long time having a career or studying didn’t seem possible. I hadn’t seen anyone on either side of my family go to university or anything so it felt unattainable. 

I’m proud that I believed in myself and chose to work in the community sector because it meant that I had an insight into what some of the people I work with are going through. Being in the position to advocate for someone to have a cheaper electricity bill or wiping someones massive telephone debt for them felt like a win. I've often thought about how I'd hope my mum was treated when she needed lots of help when I was little. So that's why advocacy is so important to me  

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@Bre-RO wrote:

To give a bit of my background and why advocacy is so important to me. I grew up in a family where there was lots of need for advocacy. My parents both struggled to keep our family above the poverty line and for a long time having a career or studying didn’t seem possible. I hadn’t seen anyone on either side of my family go to university or anything so it felt unattainable. 

 

I’m proud that I believed in myself and chose to work in the community sector because it meant that I had an insight into what some of the people I work with are going through. Being in the position to advocate for someone to have a cheaper electricity bill or wiping someones massive telephone debt for them felt like a win. I've often thought about how I'd hope my mum was treated when she needed lots of help when I was little. So that's why advocacy is so important to me  

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So lovely to hear more about you and your background @Bre-RO  

The response quoted above really touched me while reading this, and I wanted to thank you for being honest and sharing this with us. Furthermore, for pursuing your goal and using your experience to help others, your passion really shows through your writing.

Aww @Bee Thank you so much I really appreciate your words 

Love fighting such as MMA,Boxing and Wrestling

I keep fighting when things are down

My mono is to always prove the doubters wrong  

@Bre-RO that's so powerful that you've used your lived experiences to help others going through similiar struggles Your empathy really shines through in your work here too

@Bre-RO you just spoke so beautifully about why advocacy is important to you, can you tell us how you have helped young people advocate for themselves?

Absolutely! 

Advocating for yourself can be really emotional. Even though I advocate for others all the time when it's time for me to advocate for myself, I still struggle sometimes. How I've tried to help young people (and myself) advocate for themselves is by doing a few things. 

When you do advocate for yourself I suggest a few things...

• Know your rights: Before you approach the service/government agency know what your intention is and what your entitlement to that is. Try to have as much information about what options are available to you. For example, if you are ringing your telephone provider to extend your bill. It would be good to know that your provider offers an extension every three months and ask for that specifically. 
• Communicate: This seems obvious but what I mean is to speak with clarity. Explain your situation in the best way you can, in the most polite way. It could be that you write a letter to advocate for yourself, so maybe have someone you trust to proofread it. *this can be hard to do so don't feel bad if it takes time to develop this* 
• Have support: As always - Have support. If it means someone comes to an appointment with you and takes notes, or even that someone sits with you while you call Centrelink (if you know, you know).

Some really great tips there @Bre-RO 

It is so true that advocating for yourself can be really difficult. I know a lot of our community have spoken about how it can be a struggle to advocate for themselves with professionals especially mental health professionals, so these tips will really come in handy! I really love your tip about having support, having someone in your corner can make all the difference in getting your voice heard! There are lots of advocacy groups out there that can help with this too, as we know it can sometimes be difficult to always have a support person with you.

@Bre-RO that really reminds me of what you said about knowing your rights and entitlements. I feel like lots of people here on RO have struggled with their experiences with mental health professionals in a way that's left them disempowered rather than the opposite 😞 Advocacy groups are something I haven't heard a lot about unfortunately, are there any ones you know of in particular for mental health? Or for young people in general?

@ecla34  That's a really good point to raise and I'm so happy you did. Working with professionals or agencies that don't work according to what you are rightfully entitled to are really difficult. With this it's hard to say because there are lots of factors that influence these situations but I'd suggest 

• Being open to having to trial out a few mental health professionals before really going deep. It's exhausting but sometimes the person we are trying to work with are not a good fit and it's okay to trust our feelings. 
• If this isn't an option always have support with you, document and get things in writing and find where you can lodge a complaint. 
• Know when it's time to take a breather, step back and reevaluate. 

@Bre-RO you have shared some amazing insights and tips, it would be great to hear about some changes you have seen due to young people raising their voice and advocating for themselves or something they're passionate about?

Thank you!

Advocating for something you're passionate about can be a really empowering experience. It is a great feeling to achieve a desired outcome for yourself or for someone else. Young people that I've worked with who have successfully advocated for better care/treatment/housing etc develop confidence in their ability to care for themselves - which is really powerful. 

On a larger scale, I think about all the young people that strike for climate change! That is a form of political advocacy that makes me so proud that there are generations of young people who want to address such a social issue. 

It is so wonderful to hear you share stories where young people have meant that have had access to such important things in their life like housing, and how this has also improved their confidence. 

A lot of young people want to advocate for others but may not feel they have the same lived experience. With that in mind how we can advocate for someone else who is in a very different situation to us?

It was really wonderful to see how many people in this community wanted to know about how they can advocate for others  

I think I 've said this before, but just ensure you're emotionally able to provide that support to someone else. When advocating it's common that the person will be very different from you - thats totally okay. What I suggest to keep in mind is to make sure the person you advocate is at the centre of the process. Ensure they understand what is happening and are an active participant in making decisions. 

Volunteering and taking time out for your community is commendable and when you have the energy to give it’s really good for your mental health. Most local communities have “Neighbourhood” or "Community" centres so that is a good way to start advocating as well.