Advocacy in a Cold Climate: A review of some citizen advocacy schemes in the context of long-stay hospital closures

Abstract

This paper offers some reflections on hospital-based advocacy schemes drawn from our experience of three Citizen Advocacy Programme Evaluation (CAPE) evaluations in Scotland. We suggest that when managers adopt Citizen Advocacy schemes as part of a hospital closure programme, they risk compromising essential features of such schemes without meeting the urgent crisis needs of residents, as the system is overwhelmed by change. A commentary is provided on how the three schemes evolved and pointers are set out for schemes to achieve the transition from hospital to community based activity.