Having a mental illness or disorder can qualify someone to receive Social Security Disability Insurance benefits. Whether it is depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, the key is that these medical conditions need to be established by medical evidence, which ultimately means that the applicant has had to have received regular medical treatment. In regards to a mental disability, it will be most beneficial for a claimant to have established care with a psychiatrist or psychologist who is more trained or well-equipped to treat someone with mental health conditions than a family care doctor.
When it comes to a mental disability, someone can be awarded disability, but their mental health condition must be severe. What the administration is evaluating is one’s ability to deal with other people in a work environment and their ability to focus and maintain attention on tasks.
Call a lawyer for help with recovering Clearwater mental illness SSDI benefits. Let an accomplished SSDI attorney assist you.
Understanding Mental Illness and Intellectual Disability
Mental illness and intellectual disability have a broad definition under the Social Security Administration. The SSA is going to evaluate to see whether the person is suffering from depression, anxiety, or an intellectual disability. The SSA will want to see how the applicant’s mental symptoms relate to meeting work demands. These demands include interacting with other people in a work environment, handling changes at work, dealing with the stress of a work environment, and not taking too many unscheduled breaks. If someone has severe depression or anxiety and they cannot focus on their job, they may be eligible for Clearwater mental illness SSDI benefits.
Qualifying for Intellectual Disability Benefits
Someone can be approved for benefits for an intellectual disability. Generally, what the SSA is evaluating is IQ testing. There are specific rules that come into play when somebody has a low IQ. If someone has a significantly low IQ, they can be approved for benefits based on that score alone. Usually, what also comes into play with an intellectual disability is similar to that of mental disability. If this person has a low IQ, how are they going to be able to relate to other people in a work environment, whether it be coworkers, supervisors, and/or the public? How is this person going to be able to maintain attention and concentration? Is this person going to be able to maintain their work tasks without supervision or without constant guidance?
Qualifying for Mental Illness Benefits
The requirements for mental illness to qualify for SSDI benefits are to have a certain mental health disorder, whether it be major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. Severe depression or anxiety are the most common mental illness disabilities. Schizophrenia is also common. There has to be a severity and severity boils down to something like intensity, frequency, and duration of symptoms. To put it quite simply, how bad are those symptoms and how are those symptoms impairing someone’s ability to do things? If that person is not working, then how are those symptoms impairing that person’s ability to deal with normal activities of daily living, whether it is dressing themselves, doing things around the house, or interacting with other people, whether it be family or friends?
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Listing of Impairment
The listing of impairment refers to specific conditions that are outlined by the SSA. If the agency concludes that someone meets the criteria for these conditions, they should technically automatically qualify for Clearwater mental illness SSDI benefits. For example, there are listings for back conditions, intellectual disabilities, mental disabilities, heart conditions, and cancer diagnoses. The listings are precise when it comes to meeting those criteria.
There are many claimants who go through this process and the administration and/or the judge may conclude that that claimant meets a listing or equals a listing. Therefore, they should automatically qualify for disability but, in most cases, most people are found disabled as with other means, not necessarily the listings. The listings are there for those specific conditions and the criteria are laid out for each of those specific conditions so it is one of the first places that the administration is looking to determine whether or not they feel someone is disabled. The listings provide specific criteria for certain medical conditions that the SSA will evaluate as part of the disability process. However, the evaluation process will continues if it is determined that one does not meet the requirements for a listing.
