A Victim advocate that is doing direct advocacy is usually dealing with the victims/survivors, those that caused the trauma and the system within which the trauma occurred.  An advocate who is doing indirect advocacy is usually dealing with the perpetrator and the system.  Those that are doing direct advocacy are dealing with hurt and angry victims, politicians that don't want to be bothered and the offenders who see themselves as the victim. Victim advocates are catching it from all directions and have a high burn-out rate.

Victims usually feel safe with an advocate and sharing their feeling with them.  This may include feelings of anger directed at the advocate. Those in the system throw up barriers and dismiss them and the perpetrators see them, as opposed to their own actions, as the problem or troublemakers. Victim advocates are in a sensitive situation and must balance many interests.  All victim advocates are dealing with oppressed and frequently traumatized people.

Many times the advocate did not chose the area of oppression that they are working with but were chosen by the issue, meaning - many of the patient rights activists have either been injured or lost a loved one due to malpractice.  This is not uncommon to other areas of advocacy.  When we do victim impact panels with sex offenders the women that choose to tell their stories of abuse usually come from the social work department of one of the local colleges.  Many of the people who made changes during the battered women's movement were formerly battered women.  An empowered survivor is the expert.

Those who would prevent change know that empowered survivors will be the fiercest at demanding change.  The empowered survivor not only has an intellectual understanding of the problem but an emotional investment.  Our advocates are our link to change and we must take care of them.

I speak with a lot of advocates who are exhausted and dropping to their knees.  Many of the advocates are discouraged, ill and beaten up and we are losing them permanently.  Victims/survivors/consumers must work to keep them.  The following are some links and issues of concern to advocates.  We will add to these as you request:

is a type of Post Traumatic Stress that some of our  victim advocates are dealing with.  If they have the information and are aware of the problem they can best guard against it.

are a concern whether we feel threatened by the victims we strive to help or those that injured them.

We are working to put together a support system for victim advocates working in the medical malpractice field.  We will post as soon as we have been able to put this together.  In the mean time call VJC Inc at (765)2922590.  We will maintain a list of advocates and possibly counselors willing to listen and share.