We provide Individual Advocacy to people from East Lothian and Midlothian who have mental health issues or are using drugs or alcohol. We also provide advocacy for children and young people (5-18) going through the Children’s Hearings process, in these areas. We also provide individual advocacy to adults, children and young people who are experiencing an eating disorder and live anywhere in Lothian or Edinburgh.

We provide Collective Advocacy to groups of people across Lothian with mental health issues so they can come together and voice their experiences in order to bring about change for others or improvements in services.

Ensuring people have a stronger voice

The main purpose of CAPS’ work is to assist people, through advocacy, as individuals or as members of a group, to set their own agenda, make their wishes known and to have a say in how they live and what services they use.

Here’s a taste of what we do:

• we provide trained advocacy workers to work with individuals;
• we find out about and publish people’s views on mental health issues and services;
• we find ways for people with mental health issues to educate students and staff about what it’s like to have a mental health issue;
• we make sure people have a say direct to politicians in the Cross Party Group on Mental Health;
• we ensure what people say is important about mental health services is heard by the local decision makers;
• we encourage people to get involved with us as collective advocacy volunteers.