Speaking to power
Advocacy for health and social care
- Author/Editor(s):
- David Donnison
- Format:
- Paperback
, 176 pages
, 234 x 156 mm
Other formats available - ISBN
- 9781847420374
- Published:
- 30 Jun 2009
£15.99 - List price: £19.99 You save: £4.00
North America customers can order this book here.
Nobody speaks better to power than David Donnison. This book comes at just the right time, when all the assumptions of the 'natural' hierarchy and its casino economy are crashing down. Donnison's agenda is, as it must be, that what he says is heard, understood and acted upon.
Julian Tudor Hart, Research Fellow, Swansea University and University of Glasgow Medical Schools
Congratulations on producing such a comprehensive and illuminating account of the development of advocacy and the issues and challenges it now faces. I hope the book will be read widely across the mental health and social care community, and not just by those who are actively involved in advocacy, since so much of what the book describes has wider implications for how we treat those with mental health and other problems.
Bruce Millan, Former Secretary of State for Scotland and Chair of the Committee whose report helped to create the Scottish advocacy system
David Donnison's book 'Speaking To Power' is both challenging and timely. He argues the need for the development of a new kind of advocacy, working alongside disadvantaged and disenfranchised citizens and service users, helping them find and express their voice more powerfully and more effectively. This is a thought-provoking and inspiring book.
John Benington, Professor of Public Policy and Management, Warwick Business School
About This Book
Anyone working, or planning to work, as an advocate for people who need help in dealing with public services will want to read this book. Advocacy is an area of increasing importance in service provision, where new ways of working have to be found that increasingly create an enabling, rather than a providing, state. Advocacy has an important part to play in this shift.Based on the experience of real advocates, "Speaking to power" is written in a vivid, jargon-free style. As well as practical chapters on 'what advocates do', using case studies from Scotland where important developments are taking place, the book discusses how advocacy fits into the broader scheme of things. Donnison describes and discusses examples of advocacy, with chapters dealing with management, training and evaluation of the work. The book concludes with a thought-provoking discussion of various strategies which help vulnerable people speak to power on more equal terms."Speaking to power" will be particularly helpful to advocates working with people who have mental health or learning difficulties, for doctors, nurses and social workers involved in advocacy, and for students preparing to enter those professions. It will also be of interest to students of social policy and other readers concerned about Britain's broader social and political development.
Author Biography
David Donnison is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Urban Studies, University of Glasgow and convener of one of the voluntary agencies providing advocacy services in Scotland. His many books include "The politics of poverty" and "Policies for a just society".Contents
Introduction
Origins of advocacy
Scotland gives a lead
What advocates do: their main clients
What advocates do: questions and dilemmas
Groups and communities
Setting up an advocacy project and running it
Volunteers
Making advocacy accountable
Roadblocks
Looking ahead.
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