The Social Security Administration (SSA) processes disability benefits applications using a guide that establishes the criteria for evaluating a disability and its impact on your ability to work. Receiving benefits approval for a mental health disability can be challenging. Learning more about this guide and how it applies to mental health disabilities can help you successfully apply for benefits or navigate an Oklahoma City SSDI claim denial.
What is the Blue Book Used by the SSA?
The Blue Book, known as the Disability Evaluation Under Social Security, is a guide to the SSA’s disability programs. It outlines how disabilities are determined and the information physicians can supply to support the decisions made by the SSA. Experiencing a condition that meets the criteria of an impairment in the Blue Book qualifies an individual as disabled.
What Mental Disorders Qualify for Disability Benefits?
The Blue Book provides a Listing of Impairments divided into categories of mental disorders that the SSA evaluates to determine if you qualify for benefits due to a mental health disability. Mental disorders in the Blue Book include:
- Neurocognitive disorders
- Schizophrenia spectrum and psychotic disorders
- Depressive and bipolar related disorders
- Intellectual disorder
- Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Somatic symptom and related disorders
- Personality and impulse-control disorders
- Autism spectrum disorder
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Eating disorders
- Trauma- and stressor-related disorders
The SSA will use a five-step process to evaluate a mental health disability application. The administration also utilizes a special technique outlined in 20 C.F.R. §404.1520a to understand a person’s ability to function daily alongside their medical records to evaluate a claim.
How the Blue Book Applies to Mental Health Disabilities
It will be up to the individual applying for Social Security benefits to prove that a mental health disability prevents them from working. The SSA will review an application along with documentation to determine if the condition falls within one of the categories of mental disorders above.
The Blue Book evaluates a condition according to its level of severity. To determine the severity of a mental health condition, the Blue Book evaluates whether the condition is diagnosable through medical testing and how its severity impacts work-related activities.
Challenges to Securing Mental Health Disabilities Using Blue Book Guidelines
Mental disorder symptoms are challenging to measure and quantify. Symptoms often fluctuate, causing the severity level of a mental health illness to increase and decrease. Assessing mental health issues to determine their sustained basis impacting daily life can be complex. Proving that even on good days, managing the symptoms of mental illness can be unpredictable, making it challenging to maintain work consistently, is crucial to your claim.
Evaluating mental health illnesses using the Blue Book relies on consistent medical treatment and documentation. The cost of mental health care can limit the ability to receive ongoing treatment and document care. The nature of mental illnesses can also make health care on a continuum more problematic, limiting evidence that supports diagnosing mental health issues according to Blue Book criteria.
Navigating Mental Health Disability Claims in Oklahoma City
With help, it is possible to get the financial assistance you need when a mental health disability impacts your life and ability to work. Working with a legal advocate focusing on social security disability in Oklahoma City plays a critical role in successfully filing for mental health disability benefits and meeting Blue Book guidelines.