A patient at the adult mental health unit at the Canberra Hospital is objecting to treatment that clinicians believe he or she needs. Can Public Advocate Anita Phillips help?

She will try her best.

Usually polite, often outspoken, Phillips, who will retire from her role as community advocate at the end of the year, says many of her clients are the people at risk of ''falling between the cracks''.

''The people who come to the homeless breakfast facility every morning, the people who for years live on Black Mountain in the cold Canberra winters,'' Phillips says during an interview in her Civic office.

''These are the kinds of people that I'm dealing with day and night. I have to speak up for them. Many of them don't have a voice.'' The breadth of responsibilities allocated to the public advocate and her 13 staff seem considerable.

Phillips represents people with physical, mental, psychological or intellectual conditions which mean they may need protection from abuse, exploitation or neglect.

She can also step in if there is a serious threat to their wellbeing.

Phillips can also advocate for children or young people in need of protection from abuse, exploitation or neglect.

In addition to being an advocate, Phillips is the legal guardian for about 200 people with diminished decision-making capacity.

After eight years in the role, the former social worker, senior public servant and Queensland state Labor MP is ready for a short rest before deciding what challenges to take on next.

''It's been a very challenging and in some ways exhausting role, and I do feel I need a break,'' she says.

Phillips says her office's most significant achievements are helping individuals. ''We do get people coming up and thanking us sometimes. But not a lot because by nature of some clients, they don't, even though that situation isn't good.''

Phillips' biggest regret about leaving the job is not having seen the introduction of some services she believes Canberra needs.

This includes better therapeutic services for young people with serious mental illnesses.

Canberra's health and welfare systems can be left struggling to cope with a small number of young adolescents who, in Phillips' words, ''go completely off the rails''.

''It's not just naughtiness, they become seriously mentally unwell and we just don't have the facilities to deal with situations like that.

''Other jurisdictions have live-in therapeutic communities, or intensive care, or whatever. We don't have that.

''We have so few people in those categories that, of course, government can't just have services for everyone - for one young person this year who comes into that category - and it can be just one.''

Phillips says the authorities try to put together services but the situation is not satisfactory.

She says the health and community services systems also struggle to meet the needs for an increasing number of people aged between 40 and 60, who as a result of alcohol or drug abuse suffer from severe mental dysfunction.

''Families have rejected them, said 'Dad's a drunk, we don't want to deal with him any more'.

''They're not able to make decisions for themselves, so I'm appointed the guardian of last resort to decide. Some of these people -particularly men - are living in awful squaller. They're unsafe, unwell, unhealthy, unhygienic, smelly and dirty and nasty-abusive and nobody wants to deal with them.

''It can be extremely difficult to locate suitable accommodation for some of these clients. We arrange for them to be placed maybe in NSW.

Melbourne-born Phillips has always felt a close attachment to Canberra. Her mother grew up in the Molonglo settlement and worked in the public service.

Phillips represented the Townsville seat of Thuringowa in the Queensland Parliament between 2001 and 2004 before quitting and unsuccessfully standing for the seat of Herbert.

Having previously spent time in Canberra, she enthusiastically took up the challenge to take on what was then called the role of community advocate.

During her time as advocate, Phillips has frequently spoken out publicly on a range of issues, including the need for suitable forensic mental health facilities.

She says it's a credit to the ACT government that they pay her to criticise them.

''My job is to challenge and to criticise and to talk through programs and policies that government comes up with. The public advocate is very much to be the devil's advocate. But at the end of the day, of course, I accept that we need probably to have a compromise.''

Phillips has recommended that the government split her role into two positions: a stand-alone advocate and a stand-alone guardian.

Phillips will continue in the role until the end of the year, after which her focus will shift to spending more time in north Queensland with young grandchildren.