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Jennifer is being cared for in a rehabilitation unit for people with personality disorder and complex needs. She finds it difficult to process information and understand the impact of decisions begin made about her care and treatment.  As Jennifer’s advocate, I visit her weekly and over time we have learned how to communicate with each other so that she can explain her wants and wishes and I can explain information in a way she is able to understand.

Earlier this year, Jennifer was feeling anxious about two meetings arranged with professionals that she was invited to attend to discuss her care plans.  She asked me to support her to express herself and understand what was being discussed.

Before the first meeting with the care team, the home team and the funding organization, I met with Jennifer to help her to clarify the points she wanted to raise in the meeting.  During the meeting I helped Jennifer to understand their responses to her points and what they would mean for her care and treatment.  After the meeting I helped Jennifer revisit the information from the meeting and prepared a resource setting out the information so that she could refer to it when she became confused about what had been discussed.

Following this meeting, I supported Jennifer to meet with her social worker and the social worker’s supervisor.  The purpose of this meeting was to gather information to prepare Jennifer’s Care Act assessment.  As I was familiar with the process, I helped Jennifer to prepare for the meeting, explaining what they would ask and how the information would be used.  This help Jennifer to understand why she needed to share her wants and wishes. During the meeting, I supported Jennifer to understand the questions and, knowing her wants and wishes in advance, was able to prompt Jennifer to remember the points she wanted to raise with the social worker regarding her care needs.  After the meeting I met with Jennifer to help her to understand and clarify what was discussed.  Jennifer felt reassured that someone was with her in the meeting who would take the time to revisit the points so that she could feel settled that she had been involved.