Getting to Know the Disability Law Center of Virginia
The Disability Law Center of Virginia (dLCV), an independent nonprofit, was established to provide advocacy services for people with disabilities in Virginia. dLCV was founded in 1975 and is the protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities. Its mission is to promote justice, advocate for independence, defend rights , and help maximize options for people with disabilities. dLCV strives to make good use of existing resources and to augment or supplement the role of other organizations within the Commonwealth. The agency offers a continuum of services that prevent and remedy the effects of abuse, neglect, discrimination, or exploitation. Advocacy services are provided through information and referral, advice, education, training, representation, and consultation. The agency’s staff of attorneys and advocates focuses on the unique and complex challenges that impact people with disabilities.
Services: What They Offer
The dLCV offers a wide range of services to help Virginia residents with disabilities. These services include but are not limited to legal representation, systemic advocacy, policy analysis, and public education on disability-related issues. Other services include training for organizations, state and federal contract information, assistance performing self-advocacy, and expert advice on various disability topics such as special education, housing, and transportation.
The dLCV generally does not provide one-on-one legal assistance to individuals in cases that don’t involve a systemic civil rights issue relating to people with disabilities. Instead, it provides general information and resources, assistive technology loan programs, and self-advocacy training on a number of disability topics. When an individual may need one-on-one support or advice that falls outside of the dLCV’s scope of services, the dLCV will offer assistance with goals of finding the person the right support. (If you’re having trouble finding the right resource for your situation, reach out to the disability resource center, known as the Peer Network. It can help guide you in the right direction.)
Addressing systemic civil rights issues means focusing on identifying and reducing barriers for those who are most affected by disability discrimination. In general, the dLCV focuses on public and private programs and services that address areas such as access to food, education, housing, and employment.
How the dLCV Provides Disability Advocacy
Above and beyond the direct service it provides to individuals, the dLCV also pursues systemic issues through policy reform efforts, community outreach, and partnerships with other organizations. The dLCV has assisted a number of community-based groups (coalitions) in developing projects to improve the quality of services for individuals with disabilities, develop strategies to increase redress opportunities, and raise awareness of disability issues. The dLCV continues its tradition of coalition building and collaboration in a number of different ways: the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness grant program includes outreach and support to individuals with psychiatric disabilities who seek to exercise their legal rights; the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities grant program includes prevention and advocacy for individuals with developmental disabilities; the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities grant program includes exclusion and prevention of abuse and neglect; and acting as the independent monitor of the Implementation of the Federal Olmstead Plan. The dLCV works proactively with individuals, government officials, service providers, and other stakeholders to resolve conflicts at the individual and policy level. This effort allows the dLCV to address the primary policy challenges to inclusion for people with disabilities. The dLCV is involved in public policy initiatives designed to create change for individuals with disabilities. The dLCV has prepared position papers, provided testimony before legislative committees, served on task forces, and participated in community coalitions on issues such as increasing the number of individuals moving from institutions into the community, providing affordable and accessible housing, implementing consumer-based support systems, and increasing access to employment opportunities. It also presents a monthly cable show in the Northern Virginia area highlighting rehabilitation and disability issues. In addition, the dLCV has participated with other disability advocacy groups throughout the country to review programs that have a broad impact on individuals with disabilities and their right to participate in the community. There is a wealth of information contained in the dLCV Library.
dLCV: Their Success in Disability Advocacy
Through continual advocacy and compassionate support, the DLV has successfully handled numerous cases and has encouraged individuals to insist on their rights. Here are some examples:
The Disability Law Center of Virginia (dLCV) is an independent, non-profit corporation that provides free legal services to people with disabilities in Virginia. dLCV has created deep, long-term relationships with key administrative agencies. When dLCV attorneys identify problematic issues affecting people with disabilities, they work collaboratively with internal staff to generate policy proposals that are effectively developed, implemented, or corrected through an administrative rule change.
These relationships enable dLCV to complete complex legal research projects across many disability-related fields, including Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program rules; Medicaid and Medicare program rules; the Employment Network (EN) transition to Social Security Administration (SSA)-administered programs; Medicaid Managed Care; restrictive housing and zoning policies; Medicaid waivers and managed care; statewide Systems Advocacy for Civil Rights; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) provisions.
In recent years, dLCV advocates effectively engaged in developing an array of systemic advocacy efforts around multiple complex issues. dLCV’s extensive, nuanced knowledge of the laws, regulations, policies, and practices related to these issues has been invaluable for people with disabilities in Virginia.
Below are a few examples of dLCV’s work:
A young boy who lived in a private residential facility was discharged home with his family. However, his mother did not understand the complicated transition process to get her son’s Medicaid Waiver, or home-based services paid by Medicaid, that would allow him to stay home safely. She sought help from dLCV. An advocate spent several weeks helping her and her grandmother locate all of her son’s medical and educational records, verify insurance coverage, contact and persuade the school system to reevaluate his IEP, and to complete and submit all applications and paperwork. When her son returned home, the mother immediately could tell a difference with his behavioral and physical health. The family is currently awaiting the results of his IEP reevaluation and a Medicaid Waiver request. The family reported feeling empowered to be involved in the discharge planning, understand the process, and advocate for their son . Honestly, this may be the first year that they feel that they have made it through the entire school year with their son having no serious hospitalizations or psychiatric med changes.
After years of stress at work, a client had to stop working. After he stopped working, the client received bills for his medical services that would cause him to incur more debt. Plus, the bills were for services that he had already paid for. In addition, the client was getting mail from a collection agency every month. Fortunately, having heard about dLCV, the client sought legal assistance regarding his bills and insurance. The dLCV attorney filed complaints requesting reimbursement for the client for the wrongfully denied medical bills. dLCV advocates successfully assisted our client by alleviating medical debt, preventing wage garnishment, affecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in insurance coverage modifications, and helping him return to work when he was ready.
An individual with a history of mental illness and addiction mishandled his prescribed medications. As a result, his doctor refused to prescribe him medications. The medication was critical, and without it, his mental health and recovery greatly suffered. Despite repeated requests from the dLCV advocate, the doctor repeatedly refused to prescribe the medication. dLCV advocates sent a letter to the doctor about the patient’s right to this medication. After that, the patient began receiving the medication and his condition stabilized. Since then, he can now sustain a job, has reestablished relationships with his family and friends, no longer suffers from delirium and psychosis, and regularly attends treatment and medication monitoring.
A parent reported that her daughter, raised in a local group home, had attended her IEP meetings in high school and was widely considered to be going toward postsecondary education. However, dLCV advocated with the parent and marveled at the results. While preparing for the young women’s transition from high school, the IEP team began working toward postsecondary education. What is remarkable about this story is that the young women is now, as a result of the IEP team motivating her and her willingness to succeed, has trained and competently served as a member of the Virginia’s National Guard Honor Guard. She follows a strict schedule and regiment daily and is currently in the process of filling out college applications for fall enrollment. She will meet all the requirements set forth in her IEP and is motivated to be self-sufficient.
How to Get Services from dLCV
Individuals and families can reach out the Disability Law Center of Virginia to access its services at their website www.dlcv.org or by telephone at 1-800-552-3962. While services are free of charge, there are eligibility requirements that must be met. For example, individuals must have a qualifying disability and they must meet income guidelines (roughly < 200% The Federal Poverty Level) unless the request meets priority criteria. The general priority criteria are: a case or issue impacting the access to the core rights of people with disabilities, the legal matter has potential impact on a large number of people, the case impacts the exercise of a choice by people with disabilities and their family members, family resource center issues, the case or issue impacts a community systems change, and the case or issue involves Medicaid matters of statewide federal impact.
Supporting the Disability Law Center of Virginia
There are many ways to support the Disability Law Center of Virginia. Be sure to check out their website for further details and to confirm accuracy of any details or information presented below. (a) Volunteers. Volunteers are an integral part of this non-profit organization. There is a volunteer application on their website, or you can call them directly. For example, Teresa Janacaro was looking for an opportunity to volunteer her time when she joined dLCV in 2012 as a member of the Community Advocacy Program Law Internship group. The dLCV is searching for more volunteers like Teresa to lend them their talents.
(b) Donations. You could make a donation. This could be in the form of cash, time, or materials (e.g., books, clothes). A local community service organization that also supports the dLCV is called The Highland Center. They have a Façade Preservation Grant Program. An example of a grant is The Faith, Hope and Love Fund. In 2007, the Highland Center awarded the dLCV $1,000.00 to provide funding to two attorneys to file a class action lawsuit against a health care system and its parent company to seek injunctive relief in the form of expansion of the system’s Medicaid and uninsured sliding fee scales . The Highland Center describes the Faith, Hope and Love Fund of the Highland Center as follows: "The FHLF was started in 2002 to assist individuals and families with special needs through financial assistance. It is a fund that serves as a bridge to help people access services that fall outside of traditional medical coverage. The fund also assists with personal advocacy." Another example of a current program funded by the dLCV is the Basic Civil Rights Counseling project. The goal is to provide basic civil rights information and self-advocacy advice to eligible and interested callers wanting information about their special education rights or their rights as veterans to certain services. A link on the dLCV project page allows individuals and organizations to donate specifically to this project.
(c) Advocacy. You can become part of the solution by advocating for persons with disabilities. For example, the dLCV is working with other advocacy organizations to end the needless segregation of people with disabilities in Virginia’s training centers. Simply reaching out to the dLCV by phone or e-mail to ask for help on an advocacy issue or to volunteer to be a resource persons for them is easy.
