Is there a Bias towards individuals with Mental Health Illnesses in the Disability process

0:20 Happy New Year to you, and welcome to another edition of Q and A Social Security Disability Today. I am your host, attorney Anthony Reeves. Let's get to your questions. Is there a bias against those persons who have mental health illnesses in the Social Security disability process? Okay? This comes up every now and then because a lot of times when I'm representing clients who have mental illnesses, they're always concerned that there is a predisposed bias against them because when you look at a person with a mental illness, you can't always tell just from physically looking at them that something's wrong. In other words, if somebody has a bad back, you can see them holding their back. If you have somebody who's got bad needs or something like that, you can see them

1:03 holding their knees and things like that. But unfortunately, what ends up happening is that because you won't necessarily knowice at first glance when talking to someone, if someone has a mental illness, is there a bias against them? This is what I tell people all the time, and I'm going to tell this to you. It's important to remember that what Social Security relies on is your medical evidence as well as statements from people who know you and you as well, don't get frustrated or get offended or get upset because you believe that because people can't readily see your disability, that they're biased against you because they can't see it. Doesn't work like that. Unfortunately, you know, I'm not

1:44 gonna lie and pretend like that. I'm not naive to the fact that there's a lot of ignorant people in this world who will sit there and say there's nothing wrong with a person, but not know that you have problems sleeping, that you have problems of dealing with crowds, and anxiety, that you have times when you may hear voices, or maybe there's when you get anxiety and so forth, or about the depression where you don't want to leave your room for days on end. Keep in mind, when Social Security is looking at whether you're disabled, they're looking at all those things from a standpoint of not only what you're telling them, but they're also evaluating the medical evidence from you going to your therapists or psychologists or a psychiatrists, then the medications you're taking,

2:23 how long you've been getting the treatment, whether you've been involuntarily admitted to hospitals, they're looking at a variety of different things to make a determination of whether or not your mental health is significant enough in order to be found disabled. So I tell people that social Security, under the regulation, they look at whether or not your condition, either physically, mentally, or accombination of both keeps you out of work for twelve months more. Don't freak out and worry or be concerned that because when you walk down the street, you can't be readily identified as being disabled based on the way you look. Mental health is a powerful condition, and people put on the best faces and so forth,

3:02 but you know, you can't read a person's face and body language to know that they have a mental health condition. The fact that they're getting treatment, the fact that there's medications that you're taking, and the fact that there are situations and symptoms that they're displaying. It's more important in social security than how you just look when you've got a nice suit on or a nice dress.

3:22 So my first answer to you would be no, there's no bias in terms of the Social Security disability process with regards to mental health. It's treated in the same manner as it would be any other medical condition. In terms of what you have to do from a medical development, are they going to be various nuances that they're going to pay attention to. Absolutely, Just like it's somebody had asthma, They're going to want to know if you smoke.

3:45 Just like if you've got somebody who say they've got, you know, cirrhosis of liver or gas droine problems, they're going to want to know, well do you drink? Same thing with mental health conditions, they want to know do you are you using those substances like alcohol or drugs that are going to cause altering effects. So those are the things they're going to look at.

4:01 So every medical condition, they are going to be other underlying things they're going to look at. But keep in mind this Social Security's primary responsibility is to evaluate whether your mental health condition looking at your medical evidence, your testimony and testimony for people who know you, does this support that you support your assertion that you're unable to work? So please, there's not a bias. And I know I'm probably gonna get a lot of comments from people saying, I know, for my personal opinion, trust me, ignore those idiots that are out there always complaining with it that look wrong with them. They don't know your medical records, and nor should they. You know what's going on with

4:40 you and your condition in itself is what's more important to social security, not the opinion of others. Again, I thank you for joining me again as here as always. My name is Tourney Anthony Reids. This is your human day social security disabilities. To them, it's the fact of the testy passion, it's the expect of the testy passion, and it's the fact of the testy person.