Division Policy 2.22

SUBJECT

Staff Acting as a Family Member's Advocate

EFFECTIVE DATE

April 15, 2010

REVIEW DATE

January 18, 2013

EXPIRATION DATE

This policy will be reviewed and updated as needed.

PURPOSE

Provide direction and guidance to staff as they act as a family members advocate during their rehabilitation process.

POLICY

Family members of DBS employees should not be served by counselors in the same office where they work if possible.  In Districts where there are two offices the case will be assigned to a counselor in the other office.

Case assignment will be handled between the Supervisor where the counselor works and the Supervisor where the case will be assigned.  The staff member will not be involved in this assignment

In situations where there is only one office in the district, the case will be assigned by the DA or supervisor to a nearby District, if feasible to do so. If this is not feasible the case will be assigned to another counselor in the office, not a supervisor or DA.   

Cases will not be assigned to Supervisors or DA’s that have direct line supervision/responsibility for the employee.

The staff person will restrict their communication, disagreement, frustrations or recommendations regarding the case to the actual case counselor, that counselor’s Supervisor and/or the CRP; they are not to discuss the case with staff in their own offices.  

When the staff person is advocating for their family member, they are not working at their job, but rather performing as an advocate for their family member.  Therefore, any advocating activity that takes the staff member away from their regular job, whether in or out of the office, is considered Annual Leave. 

Staff member is not to access the family members file unless going through the proper requests to review the file, just as any other advocate would be required to do.  Supervisor/DA will notify the DBS Helpdesk and request that the staff member only be provided Quick View Only security to this particular file.

Signed by Joyce Hildreth, DBS Director, on April 15, 2010.

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