What to submit to win case?

[monkeytoes]

Besides medical records what else is a must to insure a favorable decision on disability?

[goldyfm]

Medication history and how meds affect you can be a big help. Especially if one takes medications that affects one's ability to drive, function in the workplace. A detailed history of how your illness affects your daily life. How far one can walk, what amount can one lift, one's ability to bathe and dress unassisted, shopping and paying bills alone, driving to and from doctor's appointments. I would add any pertinent info on how your life is affected by your illness. Do you suffer from depression? Do you avoid crowds or family functions due to your health. All of these things can affect your daily life and the likelihood of being able to function outside the home. Do you have to take frequent breaks, lie down during the day?
Do you depend on others to perform tasks for you, cooking, cleaning, errands? Do you need reminders? Are you able to handle your own finances? All these things have an impact on your day to day living. Anyone else got suggestions?

[mscat40]

Originally Posted by goldyfm

Medication history and how meds affect you can be a big help. Especially if one takes medications that affects one's ability to drive, function in the workplace. A detailed history of how your illness affects your daily life. How far one can walk, what amount can one lift, one's ability to bathe and dress unassisted, shopping and paying bills alone, driving to and from doctor's appointments. I would add any pertinent info on how your life is affected by your illness. Do you suffer from depression? Do you avoid crowds or family functions due to your health. All of these things can affect your daily life and the likelihood of being able to function outside the home. Do you have to take frequent breaks, lie down during the day?
Do you depend on others to perform tasks for you, cooking, cleaning, errands? Do you need reminders? Are you able to handle your own finances? All these things have an impact on your day to day living. Anyone else got suggestions?

goldyfm, your so good at this
These are the forms social security is going to have u fill out, they are functional reports on you , how u spend your days, and how much u can do for yourself , the meds are a important factor, depending on what the person is taking, the dosage, and side affects.
Fill out these forms as accurtely and honestly as possible. remember that social security looks at the severity the disability, not the disabilty itself> It has to last 12 months or longer too. They want to know how you get along despite your medical conditions and how it effects your overall daily functioning.

[goldyfm]

Thanks Mscat, I am blushing. I know they are usually covered on the forms, but sometimes, it just helps to think about it first. I found the forms to be inadequate in giving enough space to reply and also cold and sterile in the way they were written. I just want to try to help someone else as they helped me. I also had family and friends send in a letter, but I think they had little bearing. They were never addressed at the hearing.

[Executor]

The single biggest mistake applicants make is focusing on the condition, and not how the condition effects their ability to be employed. For example, many conditions are very bad (like Cancer), but people recover all the time from cancer and can be employed. However, other conditions may seem less severe on the surface (Fibro, migraine headaches and etc), but if there is no "cure" or any type of positive prognosis, the regular effects of the condition may make employability very difficult.

With that being said......

Originally Posted by goldyfm

Medication history and how meds affect you can be a big help. Especially if one takes medications that affects one's ability to drive, function in the workplace.

This is perhaps the number one aspect an applicant should stress. Any type of serious med may have side effects that are brutal. For example, pain meds / narcotics are a huge asset to one's application. Like Goldyfm says, the effect on driving, normal functionality, and etc. How can one be employed if they can't drive when they take their meds? In fact, many organizations don't permit workers on site period, and have policies of such.....If they know they are taking narcotics.

The more narcotics one is on, or the stronger, the less likely one can work IMHO. You can really stress all the side effects and how they would impact someone being employed.

Originally Posted by goldyfm

A detailed history of how your illness affects your daily life. How far one can walk, what amount can one lift, one's ability to bathe and dress unassisted, shopping and paying bills alone, driving to and from doctor's appointments. I would add any pertinent info on how your life is affected by your illness. Do you suffer from depression?

Yes...The key here is "how your life is affected by your illness." You may need to take naps, your meds may make you drowsy, sedated, very cranky, & etc...All sorts of things that may affect your daily life. Lots of meds have these type of effects on those taking them.

Originally Posted by goldyfm

Do you avoid crowds or family functions due to your health. All of these things can affect your daily life and the likelihood of being able to function outside the home. Do you have to take frequent breaks, lie down during the day?

The key here is.....Are there any things that you may require, that an employer probably wouldn't be able to make allowances for? For example, if you've got a bad back, an employer may be able to get you a special chair, or a type of job that limits your movement and etc. However, if you get very sedated, need to lay down several times per day, or have trouble interacting with others, or have some type of mental issues....These are things that may make your life very manageable, but not employable.

Originally Posted by goldyfm

Do you depend on others to perform tasks for you, cooking, cleaning, errands? Do you need reminders? Are you able to handle your own finances? All these things have an impact on your day to day living.

Yes, these would be pretty drastic type things that you couldn't do....Especially if you can't handle your own finances. However, many think incorrectly that they need to be almost completely incapacitated in order to win a disability case. Not true....Per my comments above.

Originally Posted by goldyfm

Anyone else got suggestions?

Not to beat a dead horse, but the most important aspect one should focus on is if there are any type of allowance(s) that you may need in order to be employed? For example, in my case, I get migraines really bad and at my hearing, we stressed how they can come on very suddenly with little to no warning and when they do, I either have to lay down, or take a lot of pain meds, and cannot drive. Since they happen fairly frequently, the judge looked over at the vocational expert and said something to the effect of "realistically, would an employer be able to make allowances for someone to leave early a lot, or come in late, or go lie down....Since this applicant can't drive, the spouse would need to pick up and etc....." The VE replied "probably not." The judge awarded me benefits right on the spot.

Conversely, if I had applied using "migraine headaches" as my issue and attached all my office visits with my Doc and how bad they were...Even if there was documentation that they were horrendous....There's nothing there that proves that I can't be employed, or that I couldn't work around the condition. Big difference between the two scenarios.

So, in summary, if one has headaches a lot (as an example)....Don't focus on the headaches themselves, but rather how bad they get and what happens when you get one....And how often. It's not the condition itself, but rather the "effects" of the condition.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ex