Lamp mental health charity appoints new Head of Advocacy and Support

Emily Coates joins charity to manage mental health advocacy provision

Leicestershire Action for Mental Health Project (Lamp) has appointed a new Head of Advocacy and Support. Emily Coates joins Lamp to further strengthen the charity’s mental health advocacy services and case management.

Lamp offers free to access, confidential and non-judgmental mental health advocacy across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. The advocacy team supports people in a range of ways including helping to explain their needs relating to any mental health related service provided through primary care such as GPs and NHS psychiatry departments, for example.

Emily Coates joins the charity from NHS Nottingham Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) where she was a Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Co-ordinator. At Nottingham CCG, Emily was responsible for contracting and commissioning, focused on the third sector and children’s mental health.

Prior to that, Emily worked for Advocate POhWER for four years where she developed the Transferring Care Advocate pilot scheme, supporting people with autism and challenging behaviours who were at risk of long-term hospital stays.

Emily has a wealth of experience in mental health advocacy and has worked as a team leader and business support manager for mental health and public health organisations.

Lamp has seen the average number of calls per month double during the pandemic and the annual target for advocacy support, between April 2020 and March 2021, was reached last year, months ahead of schedule.

Commenting on her new role with Lamp, Emily said:

“I’m delighted to join the Lamp team and support the team of advocates. They have excellent skills and knowledge to support people with mental health conditions at all stages of their journey. I hope to drive Lamp’s services to be more streamlined and effective, improving services for the clients who need our support more than ever in these uncertain times.”