Members in France

ADVOCACY-FRANCE

A national organization with 250 members.

Purpose:

– Encourage the advocacy movement among mental health users in France whose voices are not heard due to the fact they are or were labelled “mentally ill” and/or “disabled” and/or users of psychiatric services, as well as those persons experiencing psychological difficulties in their relations with their family and friends.

– Foster, support and create when necessary action to provide access to remedies allowing for these persons’ opinions to be taken into account, their justified demands heard, giving them access to recognized responsibilities and ensuring that their rights as mental health users are respected in the medical, medical-social, legal and social arenas.

– Allow users to take charge as actors of their own lives, to speak out, to be heard and to be recognized as responsible through local action coordinated by a national network of associations where users, professionals and volunteers work in partnership.

– Provide assistance to any user by becoming their official advocate by law (“personne de confiance”) when the association is asked to do by a user.

– Represent users in official administrative and govenment bodies and working groups when requested.

– Encourage training and research in accordance with the operational aims and objectives of Advocacy-France.

Main activities: 

– Supporting the rights and access to remedies by persons who contact the organization when they have been discriminated against because of their mental health problems.

– Creation, promotion and support to a network of Advocacy user-led activity centres.

– Representation of users in official bodies whenever possible.

– Taking official positions on the issues and practices relevant to users.

– Training in peer-advocacy and promotion of peer-empowerment.

Postal address: 5 Place des Fêtes

CITY:   75019 Paris

Country: France                                                               

Telephone: 33 (0)6 70 33 55 81 Information line: 33 (0)1 46 07 18 18

E-mail address: siege@advocacy.fr

Website: www.advocacy.fr

Cercle de Réflexion et de Proposition d’Actions sur la psychiatrie, et l’internement psychiatrique (CRPA), France