The Consultation & Advocacy Promotion Service

How collective advocacy works

Collective advocacy supports people who use, or have used, mental health services by:

  • ensuring that people who use mental health services have an opportunity to have a say in the way that services are planned, provided and evaluated;
  • encouraging partnerships between service users and the people who plan, purchase and provide mental health services;
  • advocating for service user involvement in the training of doctors, social workers and other health professionals;
  • publishing service user perspectives on mental health issues.

Involving people who use services

CAPS believes that the most effective services:

  • are designed to meet the needs of the people who use them, as expressed by the people who use them;
  • are based on a partnership between all stakeholders;
  • involve people who use the services in decision making and management;
  • involve people who use the services in evaluating those services;
  • involve people who use the services in training staff that provide the services.