We are an independent charity offering the support of long term volunteer mentors to vulnerable young people in Somerset.

PROMISEworks matches young people between the ages of 5 and 25.

Referral criteria include; Offending behaviour, Mental Health Issues, Substance Misuse, Domestic Abuse, Leaving Care, Adoption Support, CSE Risk, Exclusion from School, Disabilities .

If you are a child in care you could ask for an advocate if you are worried or upset about something, or if things are changing for you – perhaps you are moving placements or going to a new school. You could also have an advocate come with you to your review or other meetings about you. Advocates can also help you if you want make a complaint or resolve an issue.

Swan Advocacy Dementia Advocacy Service supports people who are concerned about their memory or have a diagnosis of dementia, to complete a Living Well Plan. What is a Living Well Plan?

A Living Well Plan is a record of someone’s past, present and future. It records past achievements and memories, identifies preferences that are important to someone today, and captures their hopes and wishes for the future.  The plans include important information, what care preferences a person has and what plans they would like to make for their future.

Completing a Living Well Plan can:

• Encourage someone to plan for the future
• Help others involved in their care to understand them better
• Help others who are making decisions on someone’s behalf, when they are unable to do so.

We have trained volunteers to support people to complete a Living Well Plan.

Are you a young person receiving support from services for mental health or drug and alcohol problems? Is it now time for your support to transfer to Adult Services?

We know this can be a time of big change and you may be worried about losing support or that people are not listening to you about what you think you need. If you feel your voice is not being heard and you would like help to say what you want, an independent advocate might be able to help. Service provided by Advocacy in Somerset. For more information, visit our website, call or email our support team.

Seeking to provide access to specialist advice, advocacy and casework under Community Care Legislation in Somerset, get legal advice about the NHS, Social Services and Disability Rights. Ensuring that the most vulnerable people in our society do not suffer through lack of information or advice about their rights to Community Care under the Law. Working with multidisciplinary partners to achieve the best possible outcomes for people, we aim to help build a healthy, informed and caring community.

This service is here to help when you need advice, have concerns or don’t know where to turn. As a patient, relative or carer, sometimes you may need to turn to someone for help, advice and support. This is where the Patient Advice and Liaison Service can help. This service is free and confidential. Our aim is to help sort out any problems or concerns you may have when using health services, agree the best way forward to deal with a problem and get it resolved as quickly as possible. We will do this by: offering advice and support to patients, their families and carers, providing information on NHS services, listening and responding to concerns, suggestions or queries, talking to staff, management and other organisations on your behalf, helping sort problems quickly on your behalf. Write to us: NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, Freepost RRKL-XKSC-ACSG, Yeovil, Somerset, BA22 8HR or use the on line form at our website.

The Health Complaints Advocacy Service can support you with your NHS complaint. An experienced worker, known as an advocate, can help and support you to make your complaint.

Swan will be delivering all types of advocacy for Somerset through a single point of contact; these advocacy services were previously provided by Somerset Council through four separate advocacy providers.  This new, comprehensive model of advocacy support ‘all under one roof’ will enable Swan to deliver the ‘Person Centred Approach,’ and will further meet the new requirements under the Care Act, which came into force of April this year. Under the new requirements Local Councils are required to provide an independent advocate to support an individual who is subject to care practices and is finding it difficult to understand the care process, or to speak up for themselves, and who does not have an appropriate person to help them.