News and Stories from Atlanta Legal Aid

Much of our work in the Disability Rights Project centers on helping those in state psychiatric facilities and nursing homes access community-based services through state Medicaid waiver programs. We also help people who are currently in the community but who are at risk of being institutionalized. This risk arises when waiver and Medicaid benefits are terminated, often without much warning or any real explanation. When these supports disappear, our clients have trouble hanging onto a place to live or much-needed access to transportation and work. I have a newfound appreciation for the due process right to adequate notice after seeing so many questionable termination cases.

Although it has been ten years since the Olmstead decision, Georgia has yet to fulfill its obligations under the ruling and subsequent legislation. In fact, our state is still drafting its “Olmstead Plan.” Not only did I have a chance to share my ideas with the Disability Rights Unit about these Olmstead Plan drafts, but I also contributed to the Olmstead workgroup meeting discussions as stakeholders hashed out a mutually agreeable draft of the plan.

As an intern, I’ve been able to visit clients in a variety of settings. For example, we visited several nursing homes in southwest Atlanta, both to check in on current clients we’re helping get out and to present information to other residents who may not know of their options outside of a nursing home. On another occasion, I met clients who had gotten out of state psychiatric hospitals into personal care homes, where they were starting to thrive.

I have also visited clients in two notorious state psychiatric hospitals: Georgia Regional Hospital-Atlanta and Central State Hospital. Our visit at Georgia Regional included a transition plan meeting for a client who dearly hopes to move back into the community. It was initially heartening to see the number of staff and outside support personnel who were around the table. However, as the afternoon and the conversation wore on, the persistently empty boxes on the chart of transition tasks became almost as depressing as the humid summer heat in the unaired conference room. It became quite clear that without our advocacy, this person would drift even further from his very reasonable goal of moving out of Georgia Regional and into his own apartment.

Last month, we visited Central State Hospital to address another population that the Disability Rights Project hopes to serve: persons who have been found incompetent to stand trial — “ISTs” — who have gotten stuck in forensic units of state psychiatric hospitals. These ISTs remain in criminal psychiatric wards without being civilly committed and have remained beyond the statutory timeline for determining competency. One client we met had been stuck at Central State in a sort of legal limbo for twenty-five years. It was shocking to find that he had spent half his life – his entire adult existence — in such a sad state of penal purgatory. Despite all this, he still had goals and aspirations for a meaningful life outside the confines of Central State.

My summer internship at Legal Aid has bolstered my certainty that the legal services community has the leverage and the know-how to continue reshaping the landscape of public interest advocacy, particularly in the area of mental health and disability rights. It has been sobering to witness the struggles of our institutionalized and at-risk clients up close. Yet it has also been invigorating to see real traction as we advance our clients’ individual rights and help develop plans for statewide policy solutions. My time with Atlanta Legal Aid Society has also bolstered my certainty that I’ve chosen the right career path to fulfill my own imperative: to make life better and more just for the society’s vulnerable and marginalized populations. I look forward to being a part of the public interest advocacy community for a long time to come.

Some of our cases make the evening news; sometimes you read about us in the "Atlanta Journal Constitution." Most days, you don't know what a legal aid attorney has done for someone in your community. There are millions of stories in this city; these are a just few of them.

Custody
Mr. S. and his girlfriend, Ms. J, had lived together, with her family, for a number of years and had two children, six years and three years old. They split up, but when Ms. J. moved out and left the children, Mr. S remained living with Ms. J’s family in order to care for their children. When the three year old was hospitalized for several days due to an infection, Mr. S. was referred to HeLP, because he needed to take steps to legitimate the children and gain legal custody over them. Ms. J’s family supported Mr. S’s request for custody, as they did not believe that Ms. J. was a fit mother. One of HeLP’s attorneys arranged for DNA testing of the children to support Mr. S’s claim that they were his children. She ultimately filed an emergency petition for legitimation, custody, visitation and child support when Mr. S was in fear of Ms. J taking the kids to a home with no power or running water in the middle of winter. After a hearing, Mr. S. was declared the legal father of the children and granted primary physical custody. Ms. J. was also ordered to pay child support.

HeLP and TeamChild Collaboration
Ms. D came to the Health Law Partnership for assistance with her five year old autistic child, MD. MD was in a classroom for emotionally disturbed children and was not getting the help that he needed at school. He was in danger of suspension for acting out in class. An attorney from HeLP, along with Craig Goodmark of TeamChild, consulted with Ms. D and helped her to understand MD’s rights to appropriate educational placement and services at school. They assisted Ms. D in requesting, and then preparing for, MD’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting at the school. As a result, Ms. D was successful at the meeting in getting the child moved to a classroom where his autism will be properly addressed and he will get the services that he needs. What’s more, Ms. D also now has the knowledge and confidence she needs to advocate for her child in the coming years, lessening the chance that MD will be deprived of the assistance that he needs.

"Lemon Law"
In February, Mr. PD a paraplegic, age 50, purchased a new car, outfitted with special controls for paraplegics. He paid $19,000 cash plus trade-in. By May he was having braking, transmission and other problems with the car and took it in to the dealer, who told him they knew what the problem was but not how to fix it. The dealer kept the vehicle for extended periods to try to fix it, the last for over 3 weeks, after which Mr. PD was still experiencing the same problems. He began lemon law procedures, but the procedure got too complicated for him, so he came to Legal Aid. (Georgia’s “Lemon Law” has additional requirements for cars with special controls.)

We assisted Mr. PD in completing the paperwork and negotiated extensively with the dealer. The result was that the dealer refunded the entire purchase price minus only a $184 usage fee, for a total of $21,788.18.