I am a board member of PLAN (Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network) and represent the Client Council of Pennsylvania. I would like to tell you about some of my activities in the community as an advocate meeting and listening to consumers’ issues on different topics, meeting with them at AARP Chapters, PCA (Pennsylvania Corporation for Aging) centers, listening to their concerns about the service and treatment they receive at social agencies on problems they need help with. These are some issues I think we have to address because agencies have to understand that they need information from the consumers so that they can help them. If they don’t have that information from the consumer they will not be able to help them.
 
When I have the opportunity to attend agency meetings these are some of the things that I discuss with them that I hear from the community on the service and the way they are being treated and these are some of the things I discuss with them from the information I receive from the community and from consumers.
 
Some of the issues are the way they try to give information to the agency on the things they need for their service. They feel that the person receiving the information looks like they are not concerned about what they are saying about the help they need.
 
As an advocate, I feel agencies are responsible to receive the right information so they can be able to help the consumer with their problems.

The agency has to have a professional way of approaching the consumer in order to get the correct information from the consumer so they can help them.