Research a disability advocacy organization in your area.
2. Provide a one paragraph description of what services are provided by the agency as well as how people with disabilities are included in the governance of the agency.
3. Read a classmate’s posts, visit the websites and respond to the classmate’s posting with additional information you found helpful.
CLASSMATES POST:
The local advocacy group I found was Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, Inc. (MPAS). This group focuses on advocating and protecting the rights for all people with disability, mental or physical. MPAS provides “information, referrals, direct advocacy and legal representation with discrimination in education, employment, housing and public places, abuse and neglect, Social Security benefits, Medicaid, Medicare, other insurance and vocational rehabilitation”. In addition, the site also listed training, outreach, seminars, and monitoring for abuse and neglect in facilities as potential services. MPAS also supplied this list as priority areas:
• Eliminate Abuse and Neglect
• Increase the Protection of Individual Rights, Independence and Self-Determination
• Eliminate Employment Barriers and Protect Rights
• Improve Access to Services
• Ensure the Right to High Quality Education
According to the site, a “majority” of governing body/ board of director’s members must be individuals with disabilities or have an immediate family member with a disability. The Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) is an advisory council that advises the MAPS board of directors, on advocacy and priorities. The members of this comity consist of:
• An Attorney
• A Parent of a Child (under 18) with a Mental Illness
• A Mental Health Professional
• A Mental Health Service Provider
• Mental Health Consumers
