The money earned through the creation of this video channel will be used to fund a mental health advocacy service as part of an organisation that I run called "Cognitive Harness". This organisation also provides free mental health symptom management to those affected by mental health conditions.

WHAT IS ADVOCACY?

For those of you who do not know what advocacy is, advocacy is a service that involves representing and providing a voice for people who are being denied the services and facilities that they are entitled to, as well as, finding their human rights being violated simply because authorities such as social work, educational establishments, employers,  housing associations and many others are judgemental towards those with mental health conditions.

PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE OF ADVOCACY

Between 2014-2017 I ran an advocacy charity called Fairway Advocacy which provided advocacy to those with mental health conditions however after three very successful years of winning over 120 cases the charity had to close as our funders; due to limited funding being available, only wanted to fund the larger, as well as , much longer established charities instead of the new start charities. We had to close and stop representing people who were being abused by authorities which was very frustrating as the charities that did get their funding were just a bunch of careerists providing themselves with jobs instead of useful services for those experiencing disadvantage. This is why I have decided to start a new organisation called Cognitive Harness which will replace what was lost through the closing down of Fairway Advocacy which does not charge for any service it offers. The mental health symptom management service is funded for through donations and the advocacy service; as already mentioned, will be funded by the money made from this channel.

TWO EXAMPLES OF FAIRWAY ADVOCACY CASES

EXAMPLE 1: An example of an advocacy case that happened at Fairway Advocacy was a single mother with depression who was looking after two children who the fathers of had just abandoned. This woman was burned out and could not balance work with bringing up two children alone and was deemed by the judgemental social workers to be an incompetent mother resulting in them planning to remove her children from her care. After meeting with the social work the social work were told that they had denied this mother care services for her children and had breached the human rights act. The social work stopped the threats of removing this woman's children and allowed the mother the help from social services that she was entitled to but had previously been denied.

EXAMPLE 2: Another example was a man who had been for years trying to get his G.P. to recognise he had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The G.P. refused to recognise his symptoms and as a result of this he was denied a diagnosis of CFS. Due to this man's symptoms he could not hold down a job. This man was suicidal and after meeting with G.P. where the G.P. was shown the Diagnostic Statistic Manual Version 5 that lists all the criteria a person must meet for a diagnosis of CFS the G.P. diagnosed this man meaning he was now covered by the Equality Act where he could no longer be cautioned or sacked because of his symptoms in any future job.

EXAMPLE CASE OF COGNITIVE HARNESS

A man with autism and depression had his care stopped by social work ten years ago in 2015 where over that ten year period his home deteriorated due to him having a fixation over the collecting of newspapers. This man's home became a fire hazard and the housing officer was threatening to have him evicted despite him knowing the newspapers were a symptom of his autism and that this mess had been allowed to happen due to social work ignoring him. After a seven month battle with the social work and housing association Cognitive Harness managed to prevent this man from being evicted and got the social work to start listening and do their job and carry out a care assessment and put in situ the care required for this man. To get an idea of what social work and the housing association continued to neglect over a ten year period take a look at these photographs. (Permission kindly granted by Kenneth)

Your money will be going towards a very worthy cause.