|
If you have a mental impairment of some kind, or even if you don't allege a mental illness on an application for disability but your records make mention of "depression", "anxiety", or "memory loss", there is always the possibility that you may be sent for a mental consultative examination. Mental Consultative exams serve the same purpose as physical consultative exams. They are A) scheduled by adjudicators (either a disability examiner or disability judge, depending on the level your claim is at in the system) for the purpose of gaining additional information about your condition and B) are conducted by independent professionals who do not work for the social security admininstration. Most often, an exam of this type is requested if a claimant has either A) never been treated for a specific condition or B) has not been treated in quite some time for the condition (more than three months). Claimants who are sent to mental exams may be sent to either a psychiatric examination, a mental status exam, or a full psychological exam (basically, an IQ test). Regardless of the type of exam conducted, though, a claimant should give their best effort during the examination. The reason for this is simple. Any indication expressed by a consultative examiner (in this case, that would be a psychiatrist or a psychologist) that a claimant who has been tested has "given less than their best effort" could potentially invalidate the results of the exam. This is particularly true in the case of IQ testing. In situations such as this, an applicant for social security disability or SSI disability benefits may be asked to go to a second exam if sufficient doubt is cast on the results of the first exam. However, in addition to invalidating one's testing results, giving less than one's best effort during testing can throw doubt upon an entire case in the eyes of a DDS (disability determination services, the agency that makes decisions on claims for the social security administration) claims examiner, or a federal administative law judge at a disability hearing. What does "giving less than one's best effort" actually mean? It simply means not exerting effort to answer questions correctly, or worse, giving deliberately incorrect answers for the purpose of influencing the outcome of a claim. Do some claimants actually engage in this type of behavior? Yes, as a disability examiner I recall one case in which an individual tried to lower his tested IQ score by giving nonsensical answers to questions. The result? After three separate testings, his case was denied. 
Social Security Disability and SSI Disability Information
Disability Attorneys Help with Claims Free Case Evaluation |