We, Disability Rights Texas, offer

Great benefits (most employee-only benefits are at zero cost to the employee), generous paid leave policies (to include personal days, sick leave, vacation leave, winter break, etc.); a concierge insurance broker, and an opportunity to put your passion to work in serving and advocating for Texans with disabilities.

Institutional Rights/Civil Liberties (IRCL) Team

Disability Rights Texas is hiring an Advocate for the IRCL Team to be based in Lubbock, Midland, or Odessa.

What We Do

Disability Rights Texas (DRTX) is the federally designated legal protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities in Texas to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

The Institutional Rights and Civil Liberties Team (IRCL) serves the following people:

• Persons with mental illness living in institutions and in the community;
• Persons with intellectual disabilities living in state supported living centers or who have recently transitioned to the community for up to 90 days;
• Persons with mental illness and/or intellectual disabilities in jails and juvenile justice facilities

Services provided include:

• Community integration and prevention of institutionalization
• Abuse and neglect investigations (primary and secondary)
• Advocacy regarding rights violations
• Guardianship restoration

The Team Advocate for Institutional Rights and Civil Liberties (IRCL) in Lubbock or Midland/Odessa will be primarily responsible for monitoring at Big Spring State Hospital, a state-run psychiatric hospital, as well as private psych hospitals, jails, and other institutions as assigned. Through monitoring, the advocate is responsible for identifying and investigating abuse, neglect, and rights violations; receiving and investigating complaints; determining eligibility under Organization priorities; and administering non-litigation case level services.

This is a work-from-home position.

What an IRCL Advocate Does

• Monitors assigned institutional facilities regularly.
  • Monitoring means going unaccompanied around the facility and, through a combination of talking to residents and observation, picking up potential cases to further investigate. A good monitor is curious, tenacious, observant, adept at building quick rapport with clients, and is able to identify issues that merit further investigation.
• Independently identifies abuse, neglect, and rights violations through monitoring.
• Investigates potential cases, reviews medical and facility records, compiles evidence, and assists and/or represent clients in accordance with DRTx policy.
• Assists clients through process of case advocacy and negotiations
• Clearly communicates with clients, fellow staff members, institution staff, and other necessary parties, and documents case file to reflect activity in case and case status.
• Conducts initial interviews with potential clients and enters information into case files.
• Maintains a caseload of approximately 30 to 40 files and ensures that services are delivered timely and appropriately.
• Develops and cultivates institutional contacts and updates institutional contact information.
• Conducts outreach, education, and training for people with disabilities, advocates and organizations, and the public.
• Develops effective presentations.
• Provides intake services when requested.
• Performs other duties as requested or required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Education, Psychology, Rehabilitation Counseling, Disability Studies, Social Service or other related field of study plus two (2) years previous related experience with demonstrated success working with persons with disabilities - or - four (4) years previous related experience with demonstrated success working with persons with disabilities.
• Desire to provide direct client services to individuals with mental illness.
• Comfort with monitoring unaccompanied Big Spring State Hospital, local jails, and the Texas Civil Commitment Center. The Texas Civil Commitment Center is where sexually violent predators are civilly committed. If you are uncomfortable with working with a forensic population, this is not the job for you.
• Commitment to zealous client-directed advocacy. We work to determine what the client’s wishes are and advocate for them. We are often the only ones in a meeting advocating for the client’s actual wants while everyone else focuses the “best interests” of the client. This can make for contested or adversarial situations.
• Works well both independently and with others. This is a remote position.
• Willingness to take direction and ability to independently follow through on all instructions in a timely fashion.
• Demonstrated ability to manage individual workloads so that services are delivered timely and appropriately.
• Ability to multitask, prioritize conflicting assignments, and work under challenging conditions while meeting required deadlines.
• Strong and effective writing, verbal, and negotiating communications skills. This includes the ability to communicate in a concise manner, even when doing so regarding complex issues to a variety of people.
• Willingness to speak in public and develop effective presentations.
• Excellent interpersonal, relationship-building, and collaboration skills to be able to work effectively with others inside and outside of DRTx.
• Excellent detail-orientation, follow-up skills and organizational skills.
• Strong computer literacy including working knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• High level of commitment to service excellence.
• High degrees of integrity, ethics and judgment are a must.

Preferred Qualifications

• Functional knowledge of complex laws, regulations, and programs on both the State and Federal level affecting people with disabilities.
• Bilingual in English/Spanish – both written and spoken word.
• Experience going into institutions.

Other Requirements

• Uses personal computer 8 hours per day.
• Uses telephone, email, and conferencing systems to communicate with clients, colleagues, and other professionals, approximately 3-6 hours per day.
• Spends approximately 1-3 hours per day in meetings.
• Requires working under a moderate degree of stress (time constraints; deadlines; multi-tasking high-level projects and issues; complex issues; and conflict resolution).
• Travel within the state of Texas is required, and some overnight visits required. (20%)

Disability Rights Texas (DRTx) is an equal opportunity employer. We recruit, employ, train, compensate and promote regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, veteran status, and other protected status as required by applicable law. At DRTx, we have a clear vision: to help people with disabilities understand and exercise their rights under the law, ensuring their full and equal participation in society, and to also be the place where a diverse mix of talented people want to come, to stay and do their best work serving our clients. We envision a society where all people have dignity and worth. People with disabilities have basic human needs that are no different from those of all people. They have a right to freedom from neglect, exploitation, discrimination and isolation, and a right to be included in all aspects of their communities. Our organization is able to provide these services because of the hard work and dedication of our passionate and creative employees.

Disability Rights Texas’ dedication to promoting diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion is clearly reflected in all of our content and across all of our issue teams. Diversity is more than a commitment at DRTx—it is the foundation of what we do. We are fully focused on equality and believe deeply in diversity of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin and all the other fascinating characteristics that make us different.

The purpose of this position description is to serve as a general summary and overview of the major duties and responsibilities of the job. It is not intended to represent the entirety of the job nor is it intended to be all-inclusive. Therefore, the position may be required or requested to perform for Disability Rights Texas other work duties not specifically listed herein. Management reserves the right to modify, defer or rescind this position description at any time, with or without prior notice.