Our vision statement: People with disabilities enjoy equality, dignity, power, freedom of choice, independence

California Office of Patients' Rights

Effective advocacy on behalf of people with psychiatric disabilities

Fifteen year old, monolingual Geraldo Becerra experienced a psychiatric disability, withdrew from school, and stopped speaking and interacting, even with his family. The school district provided a psychological assessment, but did not follow through with an individualized education plan to implement the findings.

Disability Rights California filed a due process hearing, resulting in an offer from the school district to place Gerald in a non-public school and to extend his eligibility for special education for the year of school he had missed.

After Geraldo refused to stay at the non-public school and other placements were unsuccessful, Geraldo’s mother asked for home-based education services to help him with communication and to learn to follow instructions.

When the school district stated they did not have specialists with these skills, Disability Rights California found a local mental health provider who developed a program for Geraldo.

Following negotiation, the school district agreed to support the program. With the help of these services, the teenager’s communication and coping skills have gradually increased – and now he participates in an individualized education program with a bilingual instructor.

Stopping discrimination

Studies show that people with disabilities are often discriminated against and don’t know their rights. Following is an example of discrimination we helped to resolve.

Last year we were contacted by Jon English, a young man who, because of his psychiatric disability, wanted to live with his parents in a mobile home park reserved for seniors. The homeowners’ association told our client that he had to move because he was not a senior citizen.

We advised Jon that he had a legal right to live with his parents because he needs them for care, support and supervision, and wrote a letter to the homeowners’ association about Jon’s rights. It seemed as though the situation was resolved, but then the homeowners’ association demanded that Jon leave unless they annually received confirmation of his disability and a copy of his treatment plan. We advised Jon that the request for a treatment plan was an invasion of his privacy and convinced the association to accept a physician’s letter.

Protecting rights

Together with other advocacy groups, Disability Rights California is continuing its lawsuit against the Governor for eliminating $55 million in Proposition 63 funds, established by voters to support proven programs to help homeless people with mental health disabilities. As we go to press, it appears that the latest budget folds the earmarked funds into other mental health services.

One of the most serious challenges facing Californians with mental health disabilities is a lack of “the right information at the right time” – to enable them to leave institutions, resist forced medication and to recognize discrimination and learn how to fight it. Many of our trainings in 2008 focused on getting practical information out to those who can use it, including presentations to a fair housing conference about reasonable accommodations, briefing community meetings about In Home Supportive Services, and training over 100 social workers at Patton State Hospital about ensuring their clients’ rights are protected.

Resolution of patients’ rights violations

Disability Rights California has advocates located at each of the five state psychiatric hospitals who work to resolve long-standing and reoccurring patients’ rights violations. Examples of their systemic administrative advocacy follow.

  • Several state hospitals have refused to follow state rules and procedures that allow residents the right to have visitors and prohibit treatment teams and treatment plans from interfering with this right. Office of Patients’ Rights (OPR) staff is negotiating with the state hospitals to ensure compliance with these requirements, thus assuring that our clients have the right to visit with family members and friends during the time of their institutionalization.
  • One state hospital implemented a policy for staff to prescribe all pain management medication prescriptions based only on a paper evaluation without any direct interaction or discussion with residents. Through negotiations, OPR staff was successful in having the policy changed so that the Medical Director would reassess cases to ensure that that the resident’s pain is addressed in a manner that is appropriate and manageable for that individual.
  • Last year three of five hospitals proposed to implement smoke-free environments. The implementation of this policy would have prohibited individuals confined to the state hospitals from smoking both indoors and on the grounds, exceeding the smoking restrictions on other Californians. Additionally, the hospitals did not offer adequate smoking cessation programs.

Through successful negotiation with one hospital, OPR staff kept it from implementing a smoke-free policy.

This page was excerpted from our 2008 Annual Report