Advocacy is the act of standing up for someone else and representing their best interests as best you can.

Advocacy is very important in caring for someone with a mental illness because the illness will inevitably compromise their own ability to advocate for themselves at some point (or constantly) in your journey.

As discussed in the “Family Roles in Treatment” lesson, three categories of advocacy are common in caring for someone with mental illness:

• Advocacy to protect from others
• Advocacy to protect from themselves
• Advocacy to broaden what is possible