the complete reference

talking to an advocate at a day centre who toldher that it was an 'experimental ' treatment, the patient became anxious and asked to discon tinue treatment. Her mania subsequently worsened. While junior doctors sometimes see patients with a nurse or other doctor on the ward, and are thus fairly open in their interactions, advocates usually see patients alone either on or off the ward (sometimes in day centres). There is thus a feeling that advocates are giving advice in private which others may not be aware of.The title of Thomas & Bracken's article was "Putting ethics into practice". I am concerned that the ethics of some advocacy movements are not those of doctors but that they may be using their access to vulnerable people (psychiatric patients), to promote their own anti-medical establishment political agenda. It would be mistaken to 'dismiss ' them as being 'anti-psychiatry ' as Thomas & Bracken state. To dismiss them would be to ignore their destructive ideology-driven power. Local advocates have told ward patients that nurses are unable to fight back if attacked, a tacit encouragement of violence against staff. My experience of advocacy has suggested that while the concept is a good one, in practice there are problems