dunfermlineadvocacy.org

Crisis Resource

DAI supports a pool of Crisis Advocates who provide support to people with learning disabilities in West Fife, often at short notice.

A Crisis Advocate is someone who will help a person through short-term difficulties. The types of things a crisis advocate might do are:

Help write letters
Attend meetings to represent their partner’s point of view
Listen to their partners worries and try to sort them out

Unlike Citizen Advocacy, Crisis Advocacy partnerships are more short-term relationships that will end when the difficulty is resolved.

You can use the resource if:

You have a learning disability
You are over 16
Live in West Fife, and
You have a specific issue you need help with

Carol and Linda’s Story

Carol has a learning disability and was living in a council flat with just a few hours of staff support each day to help with things like shopping, cooking and cleaning. Staff began to notice that she seemed to need more help with activities and when left alone had wandered out and got lost, and had even allowed a stranger into her home. Because of her increased vulnerability they asked her social worker to reassess her needs. As a result of this an application was made for more staff support hours. When this application was turned down staff came to DAI for help.

A Crisis Advocate, Linda, was introduced to Carol, and she also talked to staff about Carol’s situation. She was able to formally appeal to the council on Carol’s behalf, stressing Carol’s vulnerable situation. This resulted in the application being reconsidered and agreement was given for Carol’s support hours to be doubled. The Crisis Advocate ended the partnership by recommending Carol be referred to our Older People’s Project for a long term Citizen Advocate.