00:00:00:00 - 00:00:13:05 - Keji Moses
My name is Keji Moses and I'm a bereaved mum and CEO of Mayah's Legacy. I'm here today with Juliette and Carole, who are senior independent advocates, welcome.
00:00:13:05 - 00:01:03:17 - Keji Moses
I'm really excited about the role of the senior independent advocate because when I lost Mayah at 35 weeks, I was lost. I didn't feel like I had the support that I needed and it would have been good to have someone there to advocate for me, to give me the support and listen to me and to help me to navigate through the system, but that was not there for me. And that's one of the reasons why I started Mayah's legacy, really, to give a voice to other families who have experienced something similar to myself and to give them the tools to be able to advocate for themselves. So now we're here to talk about the role of a senior advocate and just to find out a little bit more about it. So what is an advocate?
00:01:03:17 - 00:01:31:09 - Juliette Wales
So an advocate, somebody that could spend some time with you working out what matters to you and what steps you might want to take to get answers to any questions you have, to understand what happened to you or to your baby and to help make sure that maternity and neonatal services really listen to you and to support you through any investigations, meetings or any other processes that you might be going through.
00:01:31:09 - 00:01:42:17 - Carole Whittaker
It's also important to note that an advocate can't tell you what to do. So the advocate has to follow your wishes, we would never say to you, we think you should do this or you should do that. So you're very much in charge of the process.
00:01:43:22 - 00:01:48:07- Keji Moses
How could you support someone like me who's lost a baby?
00:01:48:07 - 00:02:15:09 - Carole Whittaker
Keji can you can I start by saying how sorry I am to hear that. Juliette and I, we hear from lots of different families that they feel really overwhelmed when something like this happens, that can be lots of investigations going on, lots of different meetings, lots of phone calls, and families often feel really overwhelmed by this. So we can be that kind of golden thread, we can be there to support you the whole way through and help you understand the processes, help you speak to the right people.
00:02:15:09 - 00:02:41:08 - Juliette Wales
And I think it's really important to remember as well that families who have been through these experiences have actually been involved in creating the roles and they've created them because what they went through was overwhelming and they really felt that having an advocate, somebody that could really make sure that they were listened to, that they were heard, that things changed and also through that process, they were provided with support, is why the roles have been created.
00:02:41:08 - 00:02:46:20 - Keji Moses
And you say it’s independent, what does that mean?
00:02:46:20 - 00:02:56:20 - Carole Whittaker
That's a great question Keji, something that we're asked all the time because it's really important to people. So we're not employed by the hospitals that provided your maternity or neonatal care.
00:02:56:20 - 00:03:22:05 - Juliette Wales
But I think it's really important to say that we are employed by the wider NHS system and the reason for that is because the families that helped and co-produced this have helped devise this role felt that it was important that we were part of the NHS because it would make us more effective in being able to drive through changes and make sure that the things that are happening to families don't carry on happening.
00:03:22:05 - 00:03:37:02 - Keji Moses
Thank you Juliette and Carole. If you want to find out about how you can get help and support from our senior independent advocate, get in touch.