UKAN RESOURCE FILE

The UK Advocacy Network (UKAN) was a national mental health service user / survivor organisation that played a prominent role in representing the interests of people with lived experience of mental distress for a period of almost 20 years.

UKAN had a particular focus on mental health advocacy. It was the first organisation to define good practice in mental health advocacy and the principles outlined in its landmark document 'Advocacy – A Code of Practice' continue to influence all forms of advocacy provision to this day. UKAN promoted peer advocacy and recognised that self-advocacy was the most empowering form of advocacy – these values are sadly less prevalent now than they used to be. As well as providing support to local advocacy projects, UKAN also supported the development of patients councils, user forums and self-help and support groups throughout the UK and further afield.

Despite its proud record, UKAN is seldom mentioned in the histories of advocacy recounted by professionals and academics. This resource file is presented as a partial remedy to this oversight and is meant to serve as a reminder that the organisation really did exist and made a massive difference to many people's lives.

The document that follows consists of extracts from the UKAN website as it stood towards the end of 2009. UKAN's major achievements were behind it at that time, although the organisation continued to attract strong and partisan support from a significant group of committed survivors. The unedited text offers up a snapshot of UKAN's history, ethos and activities and provides a primary source for anyone with an interest in the linked histories of advocacy and the survivor movement in the UK.

Patrick WoodUKAN Training and Development Worker, 1995 – 2007

The UK Advocacy Network (UKAN)

Welcome to UKAN, the user controlled national federation of advocacy projects, patients' councils, user forums and self-help and support groups working in the field of mental health.

About The UK Advocacy Network (UKAN)

UKAN was founded in 1990 to be a national resource, linking mental health user groups ofall types. The common aim is the use of advocacy in many forms to empower people who use specialist services.

At the heart of UKAN is the belief that advocacy should be independent and led by people who have direct experience of using mental health services. Groups are eligible for full membership if they are user / survivor led and run. Associate membership is also open to those organisations which provide some form of advocacy service to mental health serviceusers and are working towards being user controlled. UKAN does not currently have individual members.

UKAN promotes service user empowerment by representing issues from a user perspective in a number of national forums. It encourages the development of Patients Councils, User Forums and Advocacy Projects and offers information, training and supportto both groups and individuals working towards mental health service user led approaches in any service.

UKAN is committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of our work. All affiliated groups are required to either have an equal opportunities policy, or be actively working towards this.

UKAN Mission Statement

To promote and campaign for independent user led advocacy for all mental health service users and meaningful involvement of users in all aspects of mental health service planningand delivery.

To be a national voice promoting the human rights of mental health service users.

History of UKAN

In 1990 a conference of mental health service users decided to set up a national organisation to link and provide practical assistance to the growing number of advocacy groups and user involvement projects.

Aided by a grant from Research and Development in Psychiatry - now the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health - the National Advocacy Network Steering Group developed the idea of a grass roots directed organisation to be based outside London.

In 1993 a grant from the Mental Health Foundation enabled the setting up of UKAN with anoffice base in Sheffield. The collection and dissemination of information on advocacy and user involvement, which had been happening in an ad hoc way, could now be channelled through a recognised office base.

Training and Development

The UKAN Training and Development Unit was formed in 1995 to address the advocacy training needs of service user controlled mental health advocacy groups and mental health

professionals.

UKAN was the first organisation to define the core principles of mental health advocacy in its landmark document 'Advocacy: A Code of Practice' (1994).

UKAN was also the first organisation to develop comprehensive standards for mental health advocacy services.

UKAN has a 12 year track record of providing quality mental health advocacy training and support. It is the only national organisation to provide comprehensive mental health advocacy training. UKAN training has proved crucial in the development of local mental health advocacy projects throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

UKAN continually updates its training materials to reflect developments in the field of mental health advocacy.

Training in mental health advocacy

UKAN can provide tailor-made solutions to the training needs of groups with an interest in mental health advocacy, self-advocacy and user involvement.

We also offer a comprehensive independent evaluation service for mental health, social and community groups of all kinds.

UKAN publications

See also under The Advocate

Advocacy: A Code of Practice (1994)

UKAN/NHS Executive Mental Health Task Force User Group

This landmark publication developed by UKAN as part of the government appointed Mental Health Task Force was the first document to outline principles and good practice inmental health advocacy. Much of the work on principles and standards since then has repeated or been influenced by its content.

Although currently out of print a photocopied version is available for £3.00 per copy to cover the cost of post and packaging.

Advocacy Today and Tomorrow: The UKAN Training Tool (2004)

Written by Patrick Wood and Gillian Mullins

ISBN 0-9537303-5-2

This publication, which is the third edition of the UKAN Advocacy Training Pack first launched in 1999, has provided core training for a number of advocacy services throughout the UK. Its contents are based on the themes that advocacy groups over the

years have identified as areas of concern.

Available for £35.00 per copy (including post and packaging).

The Advocate

As well as keeping members and friends up to date about UKAN activities and debates theUKAN magazine features articles, reports and reviews on mental health advocacy, user empowerment, self-help, recovery, survivor arts and a wide range of other issues of interest to service users, survivors, mental health professionals and service providers.

Extracts from previous editions of The Advocate

Who needs a new Mental Health Act anyway? Compulsion in the community alreadyexists, by a service recipient

from The Advocate, September 2006

"I am a survivor of multiple admissions to psychiatric units. More and more this is happening as a result of being caught in a particularly vicious spiral of mutual misunderstanding and lack of trust.

I am now subject to the attentions of the Home Treatment Team..."

On Taking Money from Drug Companies, by Peter Campbell

from The Advocate, October 2005

"I have always opposed groups and individuals taking money from drug companies. In many ways this is a gut feeling on my part and I find it quite difficult to rationalise. Twenty years ago, when I first became involved in action, I don't think this issue was discussed much. Among the people I worked with, it was a basic assumption that drug company money was out of bounds. It was almost an act of faith, like asserting psychiatry was a form of social control, which was an essential starting point for many of us. I am sure I am still influenced by the position we took up then. But things have changed and I certainly think it is a good development that the issue is now being discussed ..."

A True Story of Self Help and Empowerment, by Eamon Rooney

from The Advocate, July 2005

"Guess what? Rooney didn't croak himself, no. You know I had waited nearly two years to see that psychologist. I ended up so desperate that if someone had said stand on a rooftop naked in Leeds city centre with an Aubergine stuffed up my Khyber as a 'cure' for anxiety and depression I'd have done it..."

A Working Advocate's View of Independent Specialist Mental Health Advocacy, by © Cate Short

from The Advocate, September 2004

"Later, waiting for nothing much of anything in the Day Room, Joe felt uneasy. He liked Aristotle, but somehow he left him feeling a bit stupid. He thought about Stan, the volunteer advocate. Stan was a bit stupid too. He had no answers, but together they had always found out what Joe had needed to know..."

Into the Deep End, by Pete Shaughnessy

from The Advocate, February 2003

"That night I slept in the graveyard. Some kids gave me some blankets and some Mars bars. I slept in the gravedigger's hut. Looking back, I felt rather comfortable. Life was hectic, but I felt a freedom that I'd never had before. Arguably, my last night of mental freedom ever was spent in a graveyard: symbolic..."

Previous editions of The Advocate

Winter 2009: A 20-page issue including Peter Beresford, Chair of Shaping Our Lives, on the survivor movement; Mike Bush, mental health lecturer, on the Impact of suicide on others; a report on international networking by Peter Munn; Mad Pride Ireland's John McCarthy on the normality of madness; photosby Mark Davies; and a tribute to survivor artist Linda Hart.

Spring 2009: A 32-page issue including Peter Linnett's 'Which way to Utopia? Thoughts on "user involvement"; an interview with Una Parker of ECT Anonymous; Andrew Wetherell on advocacy and its role in mental health services; poetry by Peter Campbell and Suzan Arisoy; and Terry Simpson's report on 'A Conversation with Thomas Szasz'.

March 2007: Includes articles by Colin Gell, Jan Wallcraft and Terry Simpson on the origins of UKAN; Louise Relton, Mary Nettle and Peter Campbell on UKAN and mental health advocacy; Una Parker on UKAN and ECT Anonymous; and a message of support for UKAN from David Oaks.

September 2006: A larger than usual isssue including articles by Sharon Cullerton and Patrick Wood on user led mental health advocacy; Graham Estop looking back at the On Our Own Terms report; Terry Simpson on UKAN'sconcerns about the Network Planning Group; a service recipient on their experience of compulsion in the community; Miranda Morland on the service user movement; Shaun McNeil and Chris O'Sullivan on the formation of VOX- Voices Of eXperience (Scotland); Anthony Davis on 'boundaries' in advocacy; Mark Ellerby on recovery; Andrew Voyce on the 73A Art Group; a review of Peter Campbell's 'Brown Linoleum Green Lawns'; and the winning entries in the Poems for Learning competition.

October 2005: Includes articles by Liz Skelton, Peter Campbell and David Oaks on user/survivor organisations accepting money from drug companies; a review of Phil Hutchinson's 'Sick Note from Scapegoat Hill'; and information about the government's response to the report of the Joint Committee on the draft Mental Health Bill.

July 2005: Includes Patrick Wood on his 10 years as UKAN Training and Development Worker; Terry Simpson on members' responses to the discussiondocument on the future of UKAN; Jan Wallcraft on social inclusion in mental health; and Eamon Rooney on self-help and empowerment.

February 2005: Includes 'From Advocacy to Empowerment', a discussion document on the future of UKAN; Liz Skelton on UKAN's future direction; and Anne O'Donnell on developments in mental health advocacy in Scotland.

September 2004: Includes articles by Peter Campbell, Sarah Holmes and Cate Short on Independent Mental Health Act Advocacy; messages of support for UKAN from members, other organisations and individuals; and Janet Meagher on user involvement.

June 2004: Includes Tom Hore on an advocacy service for people in prison; Elizabeth Winder on what advocates want from an advocacy network; Keith Halsall and Stephen Korsa-Acquah on special hospitals; Carol Jenkin on the need for consultation with Black users/survivors; and Jan Wallcraft on 'On Our Own Terms', a report on the user movement.

Messages of support for UKAN

"We would like to use the opportunity to express our gratitude for the very existence of UKAN - the only national and service-user led organisation for independent mental health advocacy. You're essential to us and what we do. Your magazine is the most widly read and relevant of any in the field. We don't know how we could have survived without guidance from your publications and resources helping ensure we were staying on track. Your work is essential to ensure some of the most disadvantaged, marginalised and excluded people across the country are afforded the same rights, protections and opportunities that others take for granted. You're also helping to defend the principles of fredom, rights, equality and justice in this country - and we will all reap the benefit of that." Terri Williams, Advocacy Works

"We think UKAN is an organisation vital to the survivor movement. Over the years it has had a major influence in ensuring user/survivor views are included in mental health serviceplanning at a national level. With its wide-ranging membership of survivor and other

advocacy groups across the UK it has always been in a key position to accurately represent the views of the user/survivor movement to the government and other parties." Peter and Louise Relton

"In setting up and developing our project, we have drawn from a wide range of excellent and professional UKAN publications and worked towards the UKAN code of practice ... Wehave attended UKAN training days, which have been extremely useful for both new and experienced advocates alike, giving workers an opportunity to reflect on their advocacy practice within a supportive environment." Sheffield Mental Health Advocacy Service

"As far as advocacy and UKAN are concerned, life without UKAN would be unthinkable. Advocates cannot function unless they are able to access information, support and trainingthat is independent. I cannot think of any advocacy service who doesn't look to UKAN for standards of good practice, and who doesn't use those set by UKAN as a template for exemplary practice." Angela Belben, Bournemouth and Poole Advocacy Services

Join or support UKAN

There are a number of ways for groups and individuals to become involved with or to showtheir support for UKAN:

• Mental health groups can join the network by applying for UKAN membership. There are two types of membership available: full and associate. Full membership isopen to all user controlled mental health groups and associate memebrship is open to non-user controlled mental health advocacy groups that actively promote mental health service user empowerment.

• Individuals can become Friends of UKAN.

• All member groups and friends can join UKAN's message forum.

• Groups and individuals that support UKAN's aims and objectives can make a donation to enable us to continue to represent the voice of mental health service users and survivors. UKAN relies on donations as we do not receive funding from statutory sources and are currently dependent on short-term project funding and a small amount of income generated by the sale of UKAN publications and the provision of training.

Friends of UKAN

Although UKAN is essentially a network for groups, we would like to invite individuals who agree with our aims to support us by making a donation, or taking out a monthly standing order, thereby becoming a Friend of UKAN.

What will being a Friend of UKAN entitle me to?

If you do not already have an up-to-date subscription, we will send you a copy of our quarterly magazine 'The Advocate'. We will include you in any consultations or debates about the organisation, advocacy, or wider mental health issues, and in any campaigns wemay from time to time be involved