Dunning (1998) defines advocacy as “people making a case for themselves and advancing their own interests, or representing others and supporting them to secure and exercise their own rights on an individual or collective basis”. Advocacy is about empowering individuals who feel powerless or vulnerable; therefore it is of paramount importance for social care workers to become more effective in representing the views of service users to reduce the risks and challenges involved with advocacy (Teasdale 1998). Advocacy can be traced back to Homo sapiens, where people lived in large groups and helped one another when possible. As societies evolved the act of helping others became more like a chore, although many advocacy programs claim to be the
