Rights Here, Rights Now!

Join us today as our guest, Regina Chaney, joins us from Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME). Regina is the Community Engagement Specialist at HOME and shares with us all about the work HOME is doing to ensure people with disabilities have access to accessible housing options. HOME tackles systemically divisive housing practices through fair housing enforcement, research, advocacy, and statewide policy work. We also aid first-time homebuyers and those under the threat of foreclosure. Find out more at https://homeofva.org/ if you or a loved one is facing any housing discrimination. You can also contact them at 804.354.0641. 

dLCV is holding a Client Assistance Program clinic on June 10th from 9-4. There are only five spots available and sign-ups are first come first serve. If you are needing to know how to access services from the Department of Aging and Rehabilitative Services, Department for Blind and Vision Impaired, or your local Center for Independent Living, or currently receiving services and have questions this clinic is for you. Find out more at https://dlcv.salsalabs.org/cap-clinic/index.html to register today.

Full episode transcription available is available on our website and find us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA or on Facebook. 

Join us today as we speak with dLCV Attorney, John Cimino regarding the recent changes to restraint and seclusion regulations in public schools. Surprisingly to us, Virginia is not the only state who did not previously have regulations surrounding restraint and seclusion. Private schools often do, but public schools have not until recently. John shares with us the differences between restraint and seclusion and breaks down all the new regulations and how they will be implemented and enforced moving forward. 

To find out more about special education, check out our Special Education resource page here: www.dlcv.org/special-education

If you would like to read the regulations for yourself, you can do so here: http://register.dls.virginia.gov/details.aspx?id=8093

As always, full episode transcriptions are available on our website and you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Join us today as Senior Advocate Rhonda Thissen shares with us the differences between Assisted Living Facilities (ALFs) and Nursing Homes. dLCV does monitoring work at both types of facilities and Rhonda is here to shed light on the similarities and differences. You can learn more about ALFs here and Nursing Homes here. Find out more general information at www.dlcv.org. 

Full episode transcriptions available on our websites and you can follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Join us today for a special episode of Rights Here, Rights Now! We have the pleasure of interviewing Deb Lochart and Taneika Goldman from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) Office of Human Rights. Deb and Taneika share with us who is the Office of Human Rights, who they serve, what they do, and how you can utilize their resources. You can find out more at www.dbhds.gov. 

Full episode transcription available on our website and you can find us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and on Facebook @DisabilityLawCenterofVirginia. 

Today we are speaking with Dana Traynham all about legal guardianship. In this podcast we reference a documentary on Hulu, Framing Britney Spears by the New York Times. 

Celebrity Britney Spears is under a conservatorship by her father, and the documentary discusses how this came to be. While we do reference the documentary often throughout this episode, we are not providing any legal commentary on Britney's situation. 

Dana provides us with information about how the legal guardianship and conservatorship processes work in Virginia. dLCV has many resources about alternatives to guardianship and supported decision making on our website: https://www.dlcv.org/supported-decision-making. 

Full transcription is available on our website. Be sure to follow us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and find us on Facebook. 

The 2021 General Assembly session is finally over and Colleen Miller is back to give us all the details on what went down! She goes in-depth on the bills we were tracking and the current status of them as well as what we are already looking ahead to 2022. You can read more about these bills and dLCV's legislative work here https://www.dlcv.org/category/legislative-highlights. 

As always, full episode transcriptions available on our website www.dlcv.org and you can find us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and on Facebook. 

Service animals, emotional support animals, therapy animals...the list goes on and on. These terms are often used interchangeably but have very different meanings. Staff Attorney Dana Traynham is back on the podcast with us today to break down the differences in these terms. She shares with us about the Americans with Disabilities Act, some new airline legislation, and some fair housing resources. You can learn more at https://www.dlcv.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Assistance-Animals-in-Public-Places-on-Planes-and-at-Home-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

As always, full transcript available on our website and you can follow us on Facebook or on Twitter. Find out more at www.dlcv.org

Today we are joined by Institutional Rights Unit Manager, Becka Herbig. Becka shares with us all the work dLCV does on behalf of our clients who are in Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) licensed state psychiatric hospitals. dLCV monitors all licensed state psychiatric hospitals and as they continue to close, dLCV assists clients with transitioning into least restrictive settings back in the community. If you or a loved one is in an institution and you believe you have wrongly been institutionalized, please check out our resources on our website https://www.dlcv.org/mental-health#complaint. There you can learn how to file complaints and more self-advocacy tips. As always, you can call dLCV at 800-552-3962. 

Full episode transcription is available on our website and you can follow us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and find us on Facebook.

Today we talk to advocate, Rachel Loria all about Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS). Rachel shares with us how youth aged 14-21 can access these services through their schools. These services include job exploration counseling, workplace readiness training, and self-advocacy skills training among others. Rachel shares with us how these services have shifted virtually due to COVID-19. Find out more at www.dlcv.org/coa. 

In this episode we also hear from advocate Rhonda Thissen, who provides us with a Call to Action. We are conducting a survey of abuse and neglect. If you feel you've been abused or neglected by a paid caregiver please complete this brief survey at https://www.dlcv.org/abuse. 

As always, full episode transcriptions are available online at www.dlcv.org/podcast. Please follow us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA and find us on Facebook. 

In this episode, we interview several staff members from the Virginia Sexual & Domestic Violence Action Alliance. We do not go into anything graphic, but there are some sensitive topics in this episode. We focus on the intersectionality of disability and sexual and domestic violence and ways to advocate and get the help you may need. The Action Alliance has a hotline that is open 24/7 at 1-800-838-8238 and a text line at 804-793-9999 or you can chat online with an advocate at https://vsdvalliance.org/contact/. 

The Action Alliance has many resources so please check out their website and reach out if you need further information. 

Full episode transcription is available at our website and you can find out more at dLCV at www.dlcv.org. Follow us on Facebook and find us on Twitter @DisabilityLawVA.