SSD Disability

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Mental Limitations and Social Security Disability SSI

If you have a mental impairment that has prevented you from working for the past twelve continuous months or is expected to prevent you from working for twelve months, you may need to consider filing for Social Security disability and/or Supplemental Security Income disability (SSI). Social Security disability evaluates how your mental condition or conditions limit your ability to perform substantial work activity when making their disability determinations. So what does Social Security consider to be mental limitations that might preclude work activity?

Social Security uses various criteria to determine an individual’s mental limitations and residual functional capacity. The following disability evaluation criteria are what Social Security uses to establish the severity of an individual's mental limitations:

1) Activities of daily living - these might include an individual’s ability to cook, clean, count money, drive, pay bills, and appropriately bathe and groom themselves. Can an individual complete routine daily tasks with independence and effectiveness? Can they participate in these normal activities of their own initiative without the supervision or the directions of another?

2) Social functioning - can the individual interact with others independently, appropriately, and effectively on a prolonged basis? This might include an individual’s ability to get along with family, friends, coworkers, or supervisors. If the person has a history of firings, fighting, evictions, avoidance of personal relationships, or social isolation, they may have significant limitations in social functioning.

3) Concentration, persistence and pace - this addresses an individual's ability to stay focused long enough to complete work setting tasks timely and appropriately.

4) Episodes of decompensation - these are temporary exacerbations or increase in symptoms that cause a loss of adaptive functioning. These episodes of decompensation may cause difficulty in completing routine activities of daily life, maintaining social relationships with family, friends, etc, or staying focused.

Social Security must have medical documentation of your mental condition; they must assess the severity of your functional limitations, and project the duration of your mental impairment. They must have medical evidence from acceptable treatment sources (i.e. psychologist, hospital records, and psychiatrist).

In addition to medical evidence, Social Security disability decision makers may use evidence of failed work attempts, mental status, statements from your third party contact (someone you listed when filed as an individual who knows you and is familiar with your condition), and activities of daily living questionnaires to evaluate the severity of the limitations your mental impairment imposes upon you.

Note: An ADL, or activities of daily living questionnaire, when completed by you, addresses how you feel your mental condition limits your ability to work and perform routine daily activities.