Mobilization for Justice serves over 2,500 people with mental health disabilities each year, enabling them to remain in the community.
People with mental health disabilities regularly face legal battles to maintain housing, secure an adequate income, and obtain and maintain government benefits to which they are entitled. These legal battles are stressors that can ultimately lead to deterioration of mental health, hospitalization, and homelessness. By providing civil legal assistance to adults with mental health disabilities, Mobilization for Justice stands as a bulwark against crisis – homelessness, loss of income and loss of civil rights– so that they can maintain stability within their chosen community.
Mobilization for Justice (then MFY Legal Services, Inc.) was in the vanguard in 1983 when it first established units dedicated to serving people with mental health disabilities, partnering with outpatient mental health providers throughout New York City and with 11 New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation psychiatric units to provide legal services in conjunction with mental health treatment. By working as a team with mental health treatment providers, Mobilization for Justice and its partners are able to avoid a client’s loss of income or housing that so often accompanies deterioration in mental health or hospitalization. Additionally, to further expand our impact, we provide training to social service workers on housing, government benefits, and other problems that their clients might be facing.
Our experienced attorneys and paralegal assist people with mental health disabilities with housing problems, consumer debt matters, SSI/SSD questions, Medicaid problems, and other legal matters through training, advocacy and litigation. We regularly work with pro bono attorneys who serve as guardians ad litem for our clients or assist our clients in administrative proceedings. Through our work, thousands of people with mental health disabilities have avoided homelessness and we have obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits for our clients. MFJ has also worked to address systemic problems that affect mental health consumers through expert testimony, policy advocacy, and impact litigation.
CALL OUR INTAKE LINE FOR HELP: 212-417-3830, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 10 am – 5 pm or email mhlpinfo@mfjlegal.org