Despite the shrinking number of state mental health facilities, the government does offer other forms of help for Americans who suffer from mental illnesses. The Social Security Administration does offer disability benefits for mental illness; however, getting benefits for mental illness is not as easy as getting benefits for a physical disability, but it is possible. SSA should recognize your claim if you have any mental disorder that prevents you from working and is expected to last at least a year. You usually must jump through many hoops for the support that you need. But do not give up if the claim is denied at first. Get a good attorney and go on to recover benefits through the appeals process.
The Social Security Administration’s Mental Disorder Listings
Social Security Disability (SSD) helps millions of Americans who are unable to work continue to receive a living wage. The SSA lists 11 broad categories of Mental health disorders that may qualify for disability payments.
Following are the 11 included categories:
Neuro-cognitive Disorders – This category includes disorders like dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease, traumatic brain injury, brain tumors, and more.
Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disroders – These disorders often involve symptoms such as catatonia, social withdrawal, the inability to achieve goals, and disorganized thoughts, speech, or behavior. If these disorders are severe enough to affect your work, you may qualify for disability.
Depression and Related Disorders – These disorders include feelings of depression, loss of interest or pleasure, hopelessness, guilt, suicidal thoughts, and physical effects including changes in weight, appetite, sleep, and energy.
Intellectual Disorders – Severe learning problems, inability to adapt, poor understanding, poor social skills, and poor practical skills often characterize these disorders.
Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disoders – These disorders are characterized by anxiety, worry, fear, obsessions, fatigue, and panic attacks
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders – Symptoms include preoccupation with having a physical illness, discomfort, fatigue, and anxiety about your health, as well as physical symptoms that are not faked but have no medical explanation.
Personality and Impulse-Control Disorders – This category includes disorders like paranoid disorder, schizoid disorder, schizotypal disorder, borderline disorder, and others.
Autism Spectrum Disorder – People with autism usually have at least some problems with social interaction, communication, understanding symbolism, social or mental development, cognitive skills, unusual behaviors, unusual responses to stimuli, and many other possible symptoms.
Neuro-developmental Disorders –The symptoms of these disorders include problems developing or learning, often brought about by abnormal vision, hearing, motor skills, and other processes.
Eating Disorders – Symptoms of eating disorders include constant worrying about your body shape, weight, or size. People with these disorders often have episodes of high-volume eating or little to no eating and may vomit or perform excessive exercise to prevent weight gain.
Trauma and Stress Disorders – These disorders may have similar results to obsessive-compulsive disorders and neurological disorders, but they are often caused by some significantly traumatic event or because of extreme stress. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the most common of these disorders.
The most important thing you can do to receive Social Security disability for mental health is to meet their requirements and document them well.
Qualifying For SSD With A Mental Illness
Often, demonstrating your disorder and its severity are the hardest steps toward qualifying for Social Security Disability. If you face a listed disability, you do not automatically qualify for disability benefits. You must first have your doctor or psychiatrist file paperwork that demonstrates how severe your condition is. The SSA considers a disorder severe enough to qualify for disability if it affects your daily life so much that you cannot perform work activities. This does not require that your disorder should require institutionalization or round-the-clock care. Instead, like physical disabilities, mental disabilities can be severe enough to prevent you from working without requiring constant hospitalization or supervision. You need to prove you can’t do the work you used to do. And you will need to prove that you can’t be trained for different work. And the illness needs to be a long term one. Even if your disorder is not on this list, you may still qualify for Social Security.
When deciding whether to file a Social Security Disability claim or after receiving a denial, you may consider hiring a lawyer to represent you in your claim. In fact, claimants with legal representation have much better approval rates than claimants who undertake the process themselves.
Contact us (859-341-2500) for a Free Consultation!
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About Grubbs & Landry
At Grubbs & Landry, PLLC, we are dedicated to personal and friendly service. We manage our practice in an ethical, cost-effective manner to best help our clients resolve their legal issues with the least expense possible. We pride ourselves in advocating for our client in divorce, child custody, and child support matters as well as other family law matters. We are active in prosecuting personal injury cases-recovering for the injuries our clients sustain due to the negligence of others. Additionally, we help our clients prepare for the future through the preparation of Wills, Power of Attorney and Living Will.
Social Security Disability Insurance is a payroll tax-funded federal insurance program of the United States government. It is managed by the Social Security Administration and designed to provide monthly benefits to people who have a medically determinable disability that restricts their ability to be employed. If you have been in an accident or became ill, and were unable to maintain your employment in Kentucky, one of the first steps you may have taken was to apply for SSD. Those benefits continue as long as you are incapable of doing your job.
When Can I Go Back To Work And Still Collect SSD?
When you inform the SSA that you want to attempt to go back to work, you will be assigned a trial period. You will be able to work as many as nine months while still retaining your eligibility for Social Security disability benefits. The amount of your benefits paid will be adjusted based on the amount you earn. Many people who receive Social Security disability benefits are afraid to attempt returning to work for fear of the effect it can have on their SSDI, SSI, Medicare, and other benefits. Anyone who has been through the approval process for Social Security disability knows how long it can take. It’s understandable that Social Security disability recipients are hesitant to go through that process again. If you feel well enough to go back to work you should inform the Social Security Administration immediately. Based on the information you provide, your case may be screened again to determine whether or not your disability will continue.
If I Go Back To Work And My Health Worsens, What Happens?
You must stay in regular touch with the SSA while you are in your trial period. You will want to take note of any difficulties your disability causes you in returning to work. Make sure that these are a matter of record. The SSA promoted trial work programs because they allow disabled persons who might be hesitant to try going back to work to go ahead and take steps towards working again without fear of losing their benefits, if they find they are still unable to perform meaningful work. The most important thing to do during the whole process of returning to work is to keep the SSA informed of what you are doing. If you return to work without informing the SSA of your intentions and continue to draw Social Security disability benefits, you can face stiff penalties and consequences. In some cases, those who have returned to work without informing the SSA have been found guilty of fraud and sentenced to prison time. In most cases, if you return to work but are later unable to continue working due to the same disability, you won’t need to re-qualify for disability benefits. You will simply be placed back on SSDI, SSI, or whatever disability programs you previously qualified for.
Grubbs and Landry Can Help You With Social Security & Disability
The Social Security Disability Act allows monetary support to those who are unable to maintain substantial “gainful employment” due to mental and/or physical disabilities prior to retirement age. For those who have had a strong work history up until their illness rendered them unable to work, they may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance Benefits. This is a monthly payment based on your past income and varies from person to person. > Learn More
Contact us (859-341-2500) for a Free Consultation!
—
About Grubbs & Landry
At Grubbs & Landry, PLLC, we are dedicated to personal and friendly service. We manage our practice in an ethical, cost-effective manner to best help our clients resolve their legal issues with the least expense possible. We pride ourselves in advocating for our client in divorce, child custody, and child support matters as well as other family law matters. We are active in prosecuting personal injury cases-recovering for the injuries our clients sustain due to the negligence of others. Additionally, we help our clients prepare for the future through the preparation of Wills, Power of Attorney and Living Will.
