East Ayrshire will be a community in which every person has a voice

The person who helps you is called an advocate.
An advocate is an ordinary person who will give their time to get to know you and, when necessary, speak for you or help you to speak up for yourself.
Our advocacy services can help you to understand your rights and choices and speak up about what is important to you.

– Act for you only when and how you choose
– Find out what you think about things
– Help you to find information
– Accompany you to meetings, medical appointments and reviews
– Stand by you when you have to make choices or decisions about things which affect your life e.g where you live or how you are cared for
– Do things with you not for you

Adults living in the East Ayrshire Council area who have/are:
– a learning disability
– a mental health problem
– an acquired brain injury
– a drug and/or alcohol addiction
– parents
– detained under the Mental Health Act
– people in HMP Kilmarnock
and
– older people (over 65)
– children and young people in the Children’s Hearing System
– young people who are subject to Mental Health Care and Treatment Scotland Act

All of our advocates will respect your confidentiality unless there are extreme circumstances when they may have to speak to someone else in order to protect your safety or that of someone else. They would not do this without telling you.

Established in 1994, through an idea developed by the local community, EAAS (East Ayrshire Advocacy Services) was registered as a charity to provide a free, independent advocacy service, enabling local people with a range of support needs to be heard. Hand in hand, we will support, enable and advise.

From it’s early beginnings, with only one member of staff, the demand for our highly valued service has allowed EAAS to grow to a team of over twenty members of staff.