What Areas Do We Work In?

DLC is involved in providing advice, full representation, impact litigation, systemic advocacy, and/or legislative or administrative advocacy in the following areas:

 ·  Special Education

 ·  Rights and Conditions in Facilities

 ·  Civil Rights and Access to Community Services

 ·  Health and Benefits

What Types of Work Do We Do In These Practice Areas?

Special Education:

We may provide advice and/or full representation in cases that raise these issues:

• Children who are out of school as a result of actions by the school district (relating to discipline, etc.);

• Rights of students with disabilities to transition services (independent living skills, vocational skills, etc., before they reach graduation or age out of the special education system;

• Abuse or neglect, including restraint or seclusion and also bullying of students with disabilities; and

• Students who are Deaf or hard of hearing, or who are blind or who have visual impairments, and need more specialized services or placements;

We represent students with traumatic brain injury on the issues explained above.

We engage in legislative and administrative advocacy in these areas, and related topics that affect students with disabilities, and provide community trainings to parents and students with disabilities.

As the Protection and Advocacy system for Massachusetts, we investigate allegations of serious or widespread abuse and neglect of students with disabilities in school systems.

Facilities:

DLC may provide advice or representation for people with disabilities who reside in facilities, including state and private psychiatric hospitals, facilities for people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities, community residences, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, prisons and jails.  The issues we work on may include the following:

• Appropriate Treatment, including: For people with psychiatric disabilities: advocacy related to admission, informed consent, participation in treatment, medical care, appropriate services, ISP appeals, emergency room rights and discharge planning.

• For people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities:  advocacy related to admission, informed consent, medical care, habilitation and/or appropriate services, ISP appeals, community integration and discharge planning with appropriate supports.

• Abuse and neglect of people with disabilities who are living in facilities.

• This work includes representation of individuals who have experienced unlawful restraint or seclusion, or other forms of abuse and neglect.

• In addition, as the Protection and Advocacy system for Massachusetts, we investigate larger systemic issues, including allegations of serious or widespread abuse and neglect of people with disabilities in facilities.

We work on human rights issues for people in psychiatric facilities, including advocating for fresh air, enforcement of the Five Fundamental Rights, autonomy of human rights officers, and use of peer advocates.

We advocate for prisoners with psychiatric disabilities who are in long term isolated confinement (“segregation”), currently by pursuing impact litigation.

We advocate for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing who are in state psychiatric facilities.

We represent people with traumatic brain injury who reside in facilities in the issues explained above.

We engage in legislative and administrative advocacy in these areas, and related topics that affect people with disabilities residing in facilities, and offer trainings.

Civil Rights and Access to Community Services     

We may provide advice and/or full representation in cases relating to:

• Housing discrimination, including requests for a reasonable accommodation;

• Employment discrimination including requests for a reasonable accommodation;

• Access to places of public accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities act; and

• Individuals moving from disability benefits to work.

We may provide advice and/or full representation to individuals who are Deaf or hard of hearing or individuals with traumatic brain injury, on the issues outlined above.

We provide individual representation, training and systemic advocacy related to voting rights, including access to voting places and to the ballot for people with disabilities.

We provide systemic advocacy related to the obligation of the state to promote community integration, and to provide services to people with disabilities in the most inclusive and integrated setting.  We also provide systemic advocacy related to government benefits which enable people to live in the community, such as services from the Department of Mental Health and Department of Developmental Services.

We provide systemic advocacy and training regarding the obligations of hospitals and other medical providers to provide accessible facilities, programs and services for people with physical, psychiatric and cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

We engage in legislative and administrative advocacy in these areas, and related topics that affect people with disabilities living in the community, and offer trainings in housing and employment law, voting rights, and other areas.

As the Protection and Advocacy system for Massachusetts, we investigate allegations of serious or widespread abuse and neglect of people with disabilities in the community.

Health and Benefits:

We engage in systemic advocacy, impact litigation, and legislative and administrative advocacy on issues related to access to treatment, medical care and facilities.  This includes work related to MassHealth prior approvals for Durable Medical Equipment (DME) and other services, and work related to coverage and service elimination for MassHealth and other health care programs.

We provide advice to people facing Social Security overpayments when those overpayments prevent individuals from returning to work.  We also provide advice or representation to Social Security recipients on other issues relating to returning to work.

We provide trainings on work, benefits and employment issues, for social security recipients or transition age youth.

We provide technical support on Social Security disability issues to Massachusetts legal services advocates, and private attorneys and agencies assisting low income people.  This work includes answering questions, doing research, organizing Coalition meetings and trainings.  We also respond to training requests, and work with national advocates on federal administrative advocacy and policy reforms.

Other Priorities:

We provide systemic advocacy and training on issues relating to emergency preparedness for people with disabilities, as well as police and first responder training.

We collaborate with our partners in the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Network (the Massachusetts, Developmental Disabilities Council, the Institute for Community Inclusion and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center) on common issues, including our support for self-advocacy.                                                       ******

For more detailed information about the rationale, strategies, outcome measures, and case selection criteria for our priorities, please click here.