Depression and Social Security Disability Benefits
If you are suffering from clinical depression, you may be entitled to Social Security disability benefits. Because the Social Security Administration (SSA) is often presented with insufficient information, it often improperly rejects disability benefits to people who cannot work due to depression. You may want the assistance of an Ocala disability lawyer to guide you through this complicated process.
The SSA should not adjudicate without first reviewing a medical doctor’s evaluation of your condition and treatment. A psychiatrist may diagnose depression and assess the level of toxicity of drugs used to treat depression. Clinical psychologists are not licensed to evaluate the drugs, but the SSA often uses these psychologists’ determination of the severity of a drug as the sole indicator of toxicity in cases where multiple medications are used. This is problematic because a psychologist might overlook side effects of these medications that hinder your ability to work.
Mental health clinics usually offer insufficient information to the SSA, providing brief summaries instead of actual clinical records. If this happens, the SSA must order a consultative mental status examination. This often fails to properly evaluate your condition, since the examining psychiatrist or psychologist hired by the SSA has only limited time to determine your ability to function on a daily basis. It is therefore vital for family members and caretakers to provide to the SSA detailed information about your ability to do specific tasks, because some of these details might not be so readily observable by doctors. An Ocala disability lawyer, who has expertise and experience in this area, can ensure that the doctors and family members provide the valuable information that the SSA needs to make a proper adjudication.
If you are suffering from depression that prevents you from working, an Ocala disability lawyer can help you make the best possible case for disability benefits to the SSA by filing a petition for benefits, eliciting detailed information about your condition and treatment of depression from doctors and family members, and presenting that information comprehensively and effectively before the SSA.