Client Services Program Overview
Barbara E. Lybarger, Esq., Assistant Director
The Client Services Program provides information and advocacy for people with disabilities. Responding to over 10,000 requests a year, the program helps people, their families and friends, as well as professionals and government officials, learn about the government programs that help citizens with disabilities live independently and about their civil rights. When consumers report systems are not responsive to their individual or collective needs, or that their civil rights have been violated, this program investigates and advocates that legitimate problems be corrected.
Hours: The Program accepts calls from new consumers between the Hours of 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Program also houses the federally mandated Client Assistance Program (CAP), which addresses similar information and advocacy concerns about the functioning of federally funded Vocational Rehabilitation and Independent Living Programs.
Examples of Advocacy by Client Services:
A young woman with a traumatic brain injury was at risk because her state-funded residential program was abruptly closed. Her parents were told that the state would no longer provide care unless they agreed to a program at the opposite end of the state. Following MOD intervention, two state agencies cooperated to place her in a program close to her family’s home.
A professional woman had been so badly abused by her spouse that she developed epilepsy. She was denied safe haven in a battered woman’s shelter because the shelter’s no drug policy was applied to her epilepsy medication. MOD was able to work with the shelter to modify their policy. This triggered system-wide training for and on-going dialogs with battered women’s shelter providers.
This information provided by the Massachusetts Office on Disability.