So, yet another lawyer doesn’t want to take my daughter’s SSI case. There are hospital records when she was hospitalized twice and psychiatrist records that state she cannot work. I don’t get it. So many lawyers will take SSDI but not SSI cases. Her doctor suggested one other lawyer. Please pray that he will take her case. We have been trying to find a lawyer for a long time.
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Maybe you should bag the lawyer idea and just continue to do this on your own. You have the medical doctors that have given the diagnosis, right? With that and hospitalizations, you shouldn’t need to waste your money on lawyers…
We got SSI on the first try, with me filling out the application (with great detail as to how employment has not worked for specific reasons, namely paranoia leading to being fired), a doc’s diagnosis of SZ, and records from 1 hospitalization. Again, my work on the application was very complete and very heartfelt.
I remember reading a while back that you were being advised to get a lawyer, but I really didn’t agree with that, as I thought it would be a waste of money.
Maybe the big difference will be your detailed and heartfelt narrative description of what you have witnessed from a parent’s perspective? I think that might have made a big difference for us.
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I’m so sorry. I suggest getting a binder and keeping everything. Every admission report, go back as far as you can. Did he have an IEP in school, get those records. Put them in the binder chronologically and continue to keep these. Now you have what is needed to prove your loved one has a serious mental illness. I was told they looks at doctors and medicines. Don’t give up.
We paid out of pocket for years before doctors, family, others who have gone down this road before told us, IMO you really should get them on SSI.
I’m not suggesting you do it on your own but it will help if you gather all the items mentioned by these parents in their posts.
Have you had a chance to see the psychiatrist’s report to Social Security? Our FtF leaders said that sometimes doctors who don’t specialize in severe mental illness may not be sending the needed information to SS to qualify as disabled.
As has been mentioned many times on this board, psychosis does need to be noted as constant and debilitating.
I suspect ssi isn’t as lucrative for the lawyers as ssdi. Do they look at your paperwork from your doctor or just refuse you over the phone?
As Mom2 said, what meds they have been prescribed is important also. I downloaded pharmacy records to send in along with the application. I also included names, addresses and phone numbers of people who had witnessed Jeb’s scz “in action”, like his landlord. I also included printouts of his arrest, and the paperwork dealing with his firing and my appeal to the EEOC - after he was aggressive with a co-worker.
I detailed all of his job history - it was extensive, the inability to keep a job time after time over years. I gave the names of the employers and their contact information.
Jeb has never been hospitalized for his scz, so I didn’t have anything like that to include.
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Are you looking for lawyers specializing specifically in Social Security cases? That’s all they do, all day long…I have never heard of a SS lawyer that would not take a case. If you were in Ohio I would have the perfect SS lawyer for you. I hope you get a lawyer soon and that this works out for you and your daughter. You deserve some success.
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Has your daughter been denied benefits already? As I understand it, many people who are denied the first time for SS disability, are ultimately approved when they appeal. I think this is something you can handle on your own.
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