Human Rights Officer on the Case

About two weeks ago I took on the responsibility of Human Rights Officer for Hearth. Each organization that holds a Department of Mental Health contract is required to have a Human Rights Committee to protect DMH consumer rights.

This afternoon I met, for the first time, with a tenant about what s/he felt was a human rights violation. When the front desk phoned down and said that a tenant wanted to speak with me, I was terrified. My heart started pounding and my mouth went dry. Oh God! What do I do? What do I say?

Theoretically I knew what to do, of course. The prior human rights officer had thoroughly explained the process and procedures to me.

(DMH suggests that the position of officer is passed around periodically. Moreover, the officer is not supposed to have direct, service-related contact with clients. That is, the officer should not be a social worker, site director, nurse, etc, since it's most likely they would be the subject of a complaint. With a small nonprofit staff, there aren't many possible officers outside of fundraising and finance.)

Anyway, the tenant came downstairs - I'll call them Tenant A. Tenant A sat down with me and poured their heart out. In the end, I'm not sure if it's a true human rights violation, but s/he definitely has a cause for complaint. So we talked and I wrote up their complaint for them; s/he looked it over, agreed to it (actual words: "this is really nice,") and signed it.

Then I talked it over with staff. It's weird to confront a coworker and say, "Look, Tenant A feels like staff is discriminating against him because Tenant B continually gets away with saying hateful things about them." We mulled over possible actions, and agreed the best thing to do was keep everyone talking, including both Tenants A & B, although Tenant B especially has a very inflammatory personality and is easily worked up - and not easily calmed down.

So I survived my first meeting with a tenant about a human rights issue. It's really quite fascinating. I learned things about Tenant A that I certainly did not know before - and staff was surprised and slightly impressed that Tenant A spoke so openly to me.

As someone who has gone to counseling in the past, I certainly understand the benefits of having someone to talk to in confidence. But to be on the receiving end was new for me. Tenants have access to complaint forms; they can file a complaint without talking to me if they want to. But Tenant A greatly appreciated being able to talk to me. I could tell that it was both cathartic and difficult to express just what s/he felt. When I offered phrases like "verbal harassment" and "discrimination" Tenant A was so pleased. "Yes, that's it exactly." And to read my finished version of their complaint and say "that's really nice," was such a quiet but powerful compliment that I could interpret their feelings for them.

In the end, I realize that it's hard to defend yourself, to stand up for your rights, if you can't articulate your feelings. And that, for me, underscores the necessity of defending "free access to education" as a universal human right.

I hope that I won't need to wear my Human Rights Officer "badge" very often. I don't expect to need to. But this first experience has shown me that I can advocate for our residents because I have the power of language.