Purpose of advocacy

Promotion and protection of a community's wellbeing and rights 'focuses on a core function of health advocacy. Advocacy is not just one thing or one way of doing things; it can be delivered through a variety of interpersonal and media channels. Advocacy also includes organising and building alliances across a wide variety of stakeholders, are a person, group or organisation that has interest or concern in an organisation. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. When we see the benefit of Health advocacy contributes to:

• Positive changes to legislation, policies, practices, service delivery and developments and community behaviour and attitudes.
• Promotion of wellness and resilience in individuals, families and communities in conjunction with health literacy and patient activation strategies.
• Raised awareness of the significant impact on an individual's health and wellbeing of broader social and environmental factors (such as housing, education, employment, and cultural identity, gender and sexuality identities), thereby enabling health advocacy to facilitate individual and systemic change in these areas.
• Empowering health consumers to become more involved in their healthcare decision-making and broader health policy and initiatives.
• Resolution of consumers' issues as they arise, mitigating escalation and lengthy complaints processes.
• Consumer-focused affordable and responsive health services that are cost-effective.