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Effective Interventions Unit: Advocacy for Drug Users: A Guide
Chapter 5: Advocacy services in rural and remote areas
Information It is often assumed that people living in rural areas would travel to nearby towns to access services. There is some evidence to suggest that this is more likely to happen in 'dormitory' areas, and that a large number of people are less likely to travel to access services. Integrated Care for Drug Users (EIU August 2002). |
Developing and accessing advocacy services in rural areas can be difficult. The location of services can be a major barrier. Expensive and limited public transport can make it very difficult for individuals to access services. Lack of childcare provision and limited opening times may also contribute to the difficulties in attending services. In addition, rural areas often have a limited range of specialist treatment and care services. This means that there are fewer treatment and care staff to provide advocacy to substance users and that clients may need to make more use of generic advocacy services.
At the same time, problems maintaining anonymity in rural areas may mean substance users would prefer to use generic advocacy services that do not label them. Difficulties in maintaining acceptable levels of confidentiality and possible high levels of stigma can pose a real challenge to service provision. For example,
in small communities where everyone knows everyone else, matching clients to advocates can become a complex procedure. This problem is made more difficult by the fact that often advocacy services in rural areas attract only a small number of volunteer advocates leaving service providers with a restricted choice when matching advocates to clients.
Example A client living in a rural area needed an independent advocate who could deal with the local Health Board, the local school and the local Social Work Department. Attempting to match this client with one of the four volunteer advocates from the local advocacy service became very difficult because: one volunteer was a member of the local Health Council, the other was an employee of the Health Board, another was a parent whose own child was in the same class as the client's child and one volunteer was on holiday. |
Rural advocacy services
Rural advocacy services tend:
not to specialise in one particular client group but deal with a range of clients and issues
to have to be very flexible in meeting the needs of individual clients (e.g. outreach services for clients with no transport)
to be relatively small with one or two paid workers and some volunteers.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals living within small and close-knit communities may be cautious about using advocacy services. This is largely because of a reluctance to 'rock the boat' in case they are perceived as 'trouble makers'. Advocacy services may be seen as encouraging clients to complain about other services and generally promote a culture of discontentment with services or the way they are provided.
summary |
Location and timing of advocacy services is a particular difficulty in rural and remote areas where accessibility is often a problem. There may be a greater role for generic advocacy services. Anonymity and confidentiality are important for clients
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