Workplace Essentials (WE) Recipient Rights: Residential Rights
This course builds on the foundation from Module 1: Introduction to Recipient Rights to explore the additional rights that apply in residential settings such as psychiatric hospitals, group homes, and child-caring institutions. You’ll learn what it takes to maintain a living environment that is safe, sanitary, and respectful of every person’s privacy and dignity. Through practical examples, the course highlights how to balance individual freedoms with clinical and safety responsibilities, and how to document any limitations in accordance with the Michigan Mental Health Code.
This module covers key foundational areas of recipient rights, including:
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Overview of Residential Rights under the Michigan Mental Health Code
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Mail, Telephone, and Visitation unimpeded communication and the rules governing reasonable limitations
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Personal Property and Searches, ownership, storage, and protection from unjustified searches
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Treatment by Spiritual Means, honoring individual spiritual or religious practices
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Freedom of Movement, how and when movement can be limited under the IPOS
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Safe, Sanitary & Humane Environment, health, hygiene, and personal-care requirements in residential settings
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Performance of Labor, rights to paid work and fair compensation
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Video Surveillance, lawful use and restrictions within psychiatric hospitals
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Additional Hospital Rights, timely physical and mental examinations and restrictions on medication before court hearings
This course is designed for employees, contractors, and volunteers who work in psychiatric hospitals, group homes, child-caring institutions, and other residential care environments within Michigan’s public behavioral health system. It is also appropriate for supervisors and administrators responsible for implementing rights policies and ensuring compliance with the Michigan Mental Health Code.
After completing this module, learners will be able to:
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Identify the additional rights afforded to individuals in psychiatric hospitals and other residential settings.
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Recognize which rights cannot be limited without justification and documentation in the Individual Plan of Service (IPOS).
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Explain the standards required to maintain a safe, sanitary, and humane residential environment.
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Describe the specific rights granted to individuals in psychiatric and general hospital settings.
Beverly Sobolewski
Beverly Sobolewski is one of ORR’s four Community Rights Specialists, at MDHHS-ORR. Her focus is on the Rights system in the private hospitals, which includes the psychiatric units.
Ms. Sobolewski has more than 39 years of diversified experience in the Behavioral Health Services and Recipient Rights fields. She been in state government service 2000, serving in the Office of Recipient Rights. She is resource for rights officers in both the licensed hospital and CMH offices. Ms. Sobolewski trains new rights officers and advisors and assists consumers and rights staff in accessing and understanding the rights system. She trains advocates and recipients in the community on the rights process and how to successfully navigate the system, from complaint through appeal.
Previously, she was a recipient rights advisor at Mercy Hospital-Detroit, Southwest Counseling and Development Services (a part of DWMHA) and St. John Northeast Hospital in Detroit.
Ms. Sobolewski holds a Master’s degree in Administration with a concentration in education and training from Madonna University, in Livonia, Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational Therapy from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
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I enjoyed the level of engagement and the pace at which information was presented. I was able to gauge my understanding in real time through the exercises within the module."
