Elder, Health and Disability Direct Client Services

The Elder, Health and Disability Unit advocates handle more than 1,500 individual cases every year. Below are our main areas of direct client services.

INDEPENDENT LIVING AND AUTONOMY FOR ELDERS

GBLS houses a specialized team for elder law advocacy. We assist elders in asserting their right to live with autonomy and dignity in the setting most fitting for them. To accomplish this, the Elder Law Project focuses on systems change and individual case representation, where an elder either must defend against removal from their home or must obtain the benefits/services that will allow them to live independently in the least restrictive setting. To accomplish this, the elder law team prioritizes the following areas:

• Defending against evictions from subsidized housing – with a priority placed on connecting elders with home and community based services while opposing unlawful practice undertaken by their landlords – so that they may continue to live in their long-term affordable homes in the community with security and peace of mind.

• Assisting elders in accessing health coverage and home based services – with a priority placed on ensuring that elders maintain Masshealth coverage and eligibility for home and community based services (and are actually receiving effective delivery of these services) so that they can continue to live in the community with supports in place to help them live a dignified and healthy life.

• Helping elders navigate long-term care – with a priority placed on assisting elders in transitioning out of institutional settings, like nursing facilities, so they can live independently in the community with adequate supports in place and, when warranted under the circumstances, assisting elders in defending against involuntary discharges initiated by nursing facilities to inappropriate settings.

Economic Security for Families, Adults, and Elders

GBLS prioritizes representation where an adult, elder, or child is not receiving Social Security or SSI benefits or the benefits are being terminated. These public benefits provide economic security for our clients and are the key to providing stability in their lives. Without these benefits, they often are unable to find housing or access health care.

For elders, we provide representation where there is a denial of Social Security retirement eligibility; denial/termination of SSI and SSDI for both financial or disability eligibility reasons; cases of SSI/SSDI overpayments where the elderly client will have no income. When we can, we assist in some food stamp cases.

For adults, we provide representation in denial or termination of SSI/SSD claims for disability benefits. Priority is given to homeless claimants and others in great need. Clients often have many medical and mental health problems that make their cases very complex.

For children, the Children’s Disability Project (CDP) represents children under age 18 whose SSI claims were denied or benefits terminated. Children are not just "small adults," but have unique needs and requirements. Visit the Children’s Disability Project section of this website for more information.

Strengthening Access to Health Care

GBLS provides reprentation for children, adults, and elders when their public insurance is denied or terminated. The public health insurance programs have complex and conflicting rules, often resulting in loss of eligibility due to bureaucratic mistakes and coverage gaps. We work to reduce administrative barriers to coverage through individual case advocacy and work with partners and the state to change the practices that cause these errors. We also provide representation when elders, adults or children are denied coverage of a specific service by MassHealth to ensure that individuals actually receive needed health services.

Through the Medicare Advocacy Project (MAP), a statewide project, we ensure access to needed services for disabled and senior beneficiaries. MAP saves beneficiaries thousands of dollars in medical costs, secures access to critical medication and eliminates most costly gaps in coverage and financial penalties. MAP identifies systemic problems and works with allies to correct them at a macro level, while working to remedy individual coverage, access, and cost problems.

Advancing the Rights of People with Disabilities

For children with psychiatric disabilities, we represent these clients on issues related to their rights to Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative (CBHI, a.k.a. “Rosie D.”) services and related special education advocacy for these same clients. Advocacy is needed to ensure that individual children received all the community services to which they are entitled.

For adults, we represent these clients for ineligibility appeals and/or issues related to their rights to services from the state Department of Mental Health (DMH). We especially focus on rights to services within DMH’s new Community-Based Flexible Support service delivery system, Department of Developmental Services, Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and EOHHS Interagency Dispute Resolution procedures. (This procedure is for severely disabled “turning 22” young adults with dire needs who have been denied eligibility by all applicable adult human service agencies.) We also provide discharge advocacy for people on locked psychiatric hospital units, in certain cases.

Protecting the Rights of Immigrants

Immigrants are often unaware of the rules about public health and benefit programs. Our work informs immigrants about their eligibility for benefits and helps them receive the benefits that they qualify for. In many of the cases that we see, some family members are citizens, and others are not. There are complex rules in both health insurance and Social Security programs about eligibility for benefits in those cases.