Taking Action in Six Steps

This section provides guidance on the different ways that you can safely take action to influence change in healthcare services for yourself, your community, or within your workplace.

This section provides information on how to identify the positive changes you would like to see to ensure that services are free from stigma and anti-discrimination; to identify the most appropriate approach to influencing change, and who you need to speak to; how to gather and prepare evidence; and how to seek support during your influencing journey.

Influencing healthcare can be done in many different ways and by many different people. You might want to influence change for yourself, a loved one, your community, within your workplace – if you work within the healthcare system, etc.

You can follow the steps below to embark on the influencing journey.

Before you begin, consider whether you are in a position to share your experiences and take action, or whether this could be triggering and/or get in the way of your recovery – you can always influence at a later time; if you are, plan ways to stay well and feel empowered when taking action. Remember that advocating for yourself in a complex system can be re-traumatising.

Throughout your steps to action pause to think about your own wellbeing. Ways to do this include getting outside perspectives and support to discuss the steps you want to take. This might be with those who know you well such as friends and family. It also might mean planning, taking a break and coming back to your plan with a fresh perspective. This Scottish Recovery Network resource focused on sharing around suicide provides some additional pointers around staying well.

An advocate is someone who helps your voice be heard. They can speak on your behalf both in person and through written word, help you with preparation like emails and letters, or attend meetings with you to be a support that enables you to speak directly. The process outlined in this guide will be very similar to those that an advocate would follow with you.

There are formal advocacy services to ensure those who are less heard from, like those with mental health problems, have support. For example, people who are covered by the Mental health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act – who have a mental health issue, learning disability, autism or dementia – have a legal right to independent advocacy. Plus for this group the role of the advocate is not restricted to mental health situations and could support for any healthcare issue of complaint.

Advocacy support comes in one-to-one / independent, where you are supported as an individual, or as collective where your voice is collected with others to build a larger voice and picture. More on this from the Scottish Independent Advocacy Alliance here, including where you can find advocacy for your needs.

Complaints processes are one way that you can influence change, they are formal and often bring to the attention of not just the staff or service you want to impact, but also those in strategic decision-making roles like the local NHS Board and politicians. The feedback services for NHS services are all easy to access online through NHS Inform here. For non NHS healthcare services you may need to check their website and the ombudsman or oversight body that covers their practice for more details.

Positive feedback can also create meaningful change. Thanking and celebrating great practice helps staff feel great and inspires others with ideas on how to adapt their practice to have more positive impact. Care Opinion website: As well as organisations own feedback processes there is an excellent independent organisation you can use.

Care Opinion share your experiences of UK health and care services, good or bad. It can be an excellent resource to use as part of research as well as submitting feedback as you can read hundreds of stories from other patients about specific services.