Special tips on filling out the Adult Function Report

0:00 This program is brought to you by the Reeves Law Firm www. Dot Reeves Firm dot com. And in the good evening, everyone in the red Tony read when you ready read bier following the news that you gotta shape for no shortage of things to talk about? What did, what will? For this is a reality. Let me read, let me read, Let me go ahead and get started. A lot of you get forms from the Social Security Administration and probably have a lot of questions about what you should actually put in these forms. Today, we're gonna take some time to go over one particular form that comes up fairly regularly and give you some tips that might be helpful to you, so that this way, when you're completing the form, you'll

1:03 have a little bit better guidance in terms of what you should put. I hope it helps. Today we're going to talk about some of the information that you receive on these forms. And if I say anything that insults your intelligence, please trust when I tell you there's a rationale and reason by behind why I'm saying certain things. So I hope the information I provide is helpful to you. You're going to find that you're going to get during the course of your application process, what's called an adult function report. Remember, this report is designed to give Social Security some information about how your condition impacts your ability to do certain things. Let me be blunt, and I've said this before,

1:41 and I'm not trying to be offensive when I say it. Social Security is not in your life every day. They really don't know how you handle things on a day to day basis, So they're trying to get an understanding of how your condition impacts you. You don't want them to have to figure it out. You want to make sure you spelled it out to them as much as much as you possibly can. Now, here's a couple of things I want you to be aware of. When you're providing information about your daytime telephone number, that's the number they want to be able to get in contact with you. You want to make sure you give them that information so that this way they can get to you as quickly as possible if they have any discrepancies. Now this is going to sound really silly, but I want to

2:23 focus on something here. When we start talking about how does your condition or illness affect your ability to work? The reality is when you're answering this question, you want to be very clear, how does your condition impact your ability to work, not impact your ability to do things at the house or go out in the streets. That's going to be the later parts in the application form. In this form, that will give you a chance to explain that things. Those things, but you want to be clear about how your condition affects your ability to work. You want to spell it tow out to them as much as possible. Your daily activities really focuses on what you do on a day to day basis, and some of these questions, I know sound

3:14 really silly, but kind of look at it from their standpoint, they're using this form as an opportunity for them to walk to walk through your normal day. So when they're asking you, you know what's going on from the time you wake up to the time until you go to bed, that's your opportunity to kind of walk therom through what goes on in your day to day life.

3:36 Okay, so I know it's going to be kind of goofy, but you want to make sure you pay attention and just think about, Okay, around what time do I get in the morning, Around what time I go to bed at night. Most people don't have a clean schedule in terms of how they do it. So you know, if they're having odd sleeping patterns and you're waking up at different times, you're going to bed at different times.

3:53 If in any event, you want to explain that to Social Security so that they know you also want to make sure you also want to make sure that you explain if you take care of other people. This usually comes up when I have, you know, parents who have to take care of kids, or you're taking care of pets or things like that, or if anybody helps you take care of those things. Now here's what you've got to keep it in mind. And this is where people kind of get tripped up because people like to represent sometimes when they fill out these forms that they can't do anything. So when you're saying you can't do anything, you now have to find you now find yourself in this unique position. How are you saying you

4:33 can't do anything? But you have people that you have to take care of? See where everyone with this? So you got to make sure that you kind of explain the circumstances. Most people forget the fact that they have loved ones who help them, or they have or the people they take care of they don't technically take care of them as much as they used to. Like if you have kids and you say, well, I take care of my kid, Well, my child is like thirteen, So there's a lot of stuff they can do independently they don't need me to do. And so and also stop and think about those things that you used to do that you can no longer do. And I'm going to tell you when you fill out these forms, you're gonna want to take the time to kind of stop and think,

5:13 Okay, what in the heck are they talking about? Because the reality is is that if you don't tell them specifically what type of things that you used to do that you can't do, Like, for instance, let's say that you were a very active used to go play tennis, basketball or horseback riding, but now you don't do any of those things. Well, let them know same same thing when they're when they're asking about, you know, does your injury and illness affect your ability to sleep? Does it wreak you up in the middle of the night. How many times are you getting up during the course of the night. Are you going when you get up there?

5:44 Are you going right back to bed afterwards? Explain all that same thing about personal care. This may seem so obvious to people, but we don't think about those little things. What I tend to find that people have a habit of doing is giving one to three word answers for each one of these. Explain how your illness, injury, or condition affects your ability to address I don't dress myself, well, that doesn't tell social Security anymore anything.

6:12 Well, I don't bathe myself, well, that didn't tell them anything. Be specific if Usually what I end up finding out is like, for instance, if you got a bad back or something like that, I'll ask them. I'm like, well, what's going on with your back? Well, what happens is that my husband or my wife will tie my shoes for me, or I don't wear you know, regular shoes, ray slip ons.

6:30 Those are things that Social Security needs to know. Don't leave them in the dark and have them trying to figure out what it is. This is your chance to explain to them how your condition. You want to talk about all the other things that may impact you as well. It may not seem like much, but it's very important in the grander scheme of things. Things that you do that we take for granted, like personal care. You know, do you need somebody to remind you to take your medications? Those things are important because if you're saying that you have a difficulty with your memory, you want to make sure you let them know that, yeah, you know, I you know I need somebody to help. And when you say, what kind of help do you need? If somebody writes mine, partakes my prescriptions

7:10 down, they write down when I'm supposed to take them, they could remind me constantly those little nuances that you want to explain in detail. Same thing preparing your own meals. A lot of times people gloss over preparing your meals, But let's stop and think about it. If you're used to making, you know, breaking out the crop pot and the deep fries skillet, and you're able to go down to go to town, but you can't do those things anymore. Why is it because of the bending over and reaching trying to get the different types of utensils and appliances. Or is it because you have a memory issue and you don't leave anything. You don't want to leave anything on the stove to set the house on fire. Spell those nuances? Same

7:47 thing. How often the reality is that Social Security assumes you gotta eat, so you got to make sure you explain to them how are you eating, Are you eating daily? Are you eating TV dinner? You know, explay it out for them so this way that they know what's going on. Same thing house and yard work. Now this might be a little bit more tricky if you find yourself in a situation where you're living in an apartment, but think about it little things you know, house and yard work. Are you dusting, are you mopping, are you cleaning, are you doing laundry?

8:18 Are you cutting the grass? Are you gardening? All of those things you want to lay out to Social Security. So this way they know the circumstances of how you do things. This way there's no confusion about what exactly you can do. You know what the most frustrating thing people get when they say these things is they're like, I can't put all that information on these little spaces. Well, that's why they have a remarks page, that's why you provide an attachment. But here's the problem that most people run across is they do two things. Either they're too short or they're too long winded, and so you're like, well, how do I find that balance, look at your answers and ask yourself the question, are you getting to the point as

9:00 clearly as possible? Now I know what's going to happen. Some of you are going to say, well, that's part of my disability. Well, that's why you have friends and family help you. So, because you got to remember, this is written on an eighth grade level, So the idea is that someone should be able to read it and be able to understand succinctly what you're doing, I mean, what you're saying. But remember again, like I said, this is not trying to insult you. This is designed for you to educate Social security about your situation. So they're going to want to know things like, you know, how often do you get you know, do you go outside and you say, well that's important, you know, Like why is that relevant? Well, if you're saying that you have

9:37 a fear of dealing with the general public, that's going to be relevant. How often do you go outside? You know, because presumably if you go outside there's people outside, or maybe not just necessarily just because of how who you get along with. Let's say you also say you have breathing problems and that you know going out into the elements causes you to have breathing issues.

9:56 Well, how often you go outside? You know? So they want to same thing when you're going to different places to travel. They want to know, you know, walking, driving, you know, writing in the car, riding about, you know, when you go out, can you go out alone? All these things are things that and this is where people kind of lose sight. They all tie into what you're saying you can and you can't do. So let's go to the point about let's try the Let's try this as an example. Let's say you say I have a very bad back, very bad back, so I can't sit more in two or three minutes at a time because if that happens, I have to go lay down.

10:31 Well, guess what do you have a trend? Do you go out? Sure? You drive a car? Yeah? Can you go out alone? Sure? Do you drive sure? Okay, The presumption is there are very few pig places. Is you're going to be in a car from five for like two minutes unless you know you're literally right next door to someplace. So what happens is that people they basically kind of create conflicts within here. So what do you mean by that? Well, what I'm basically saying is you've got to think about these things a little bit further. So, if you say you can't sit for longer than five minutes, do you go to the grocery store? Sure, how do you get there? I drive? Well, when you drive to the grocery store, is there any problems you know?

11:09 You know in terms of you know, getting there and doing what you need to do. It's important because maybe your driving is well, the grocery store is right around the corner, so I don't mind driving there. Or if I go to my doctor's appointment, it takes me I have to leave even though my doctor is fifteen minutes away. I have to leave two hours early because I have to keep stopping repeatedly along the way because I have nobody to drive me. See, you want to fill in the blank. You don't want the government to fill in the blanks for you. You want to lay it out and spell it out to them so that this way they can understand specifically the nature of your situation. Same thing with shopping. If you do any shopping, they want to know the circumstances behind it. And it

11:48 said, describe what you shop for? Are you going for little things. Are you going for longer things? How often do you go? Do you go once a month or do you go for you know, every other week. All of these things lay in play. So for instance, let's say, for instance, you say you don't get along with the general public, but you go shopping every week. See how that looks kind of weird.

12:09 And not saying that you can't do that, I'm not telling I'm not and I don't want anybody to think that I'm telling you can't go grocery shopping. I'm just saying, well, you've got to keep it in its context in terms of how they're laying, you know, comparing the two information. Same thing with money. If you're paying for your own bills and taking care of your own finances, they're going to want to know about those things. Spell it out for them. After a while, all these things start to look redundant, and you're probably saying to yourself, I am so confused. Why do we find ourselves keep running over these things over and over again. It's quite simply because of this. Once they start looking at this information, they're

12:41 trying to compare the two. So you need to start asking yourself the questions you know, hey, you know, what are your interest in hobbies and interests? You know, how often do you do them? You know, describe any changes like what did I talk about before? Like, for instance, this is not trying to be funny. Let's say you want to go play used to play basketball as a hobby. You don't do those things anymore.

13:03 Let's say your hobby is about Let's say if your hobby is a basket, you like to play basketball? How often, how and how well do you do these things? Not at all? Describe any changes in these activities? Well, since I hurt my back, I can't go on the basketball court. Bam. You've connected the dots. Same thing, social activities.

13:18 They're going to want to know about these things. You know, do you spend time with other people? And more importantly what kind of things you do? And here you want to lay it out. Who do you spend time with? Is it you going to spend time with them or do they come spend time with you? Do you need to be reminded to go places?

13:33 Do you go to the ball? Do you go to the movie theater? Go to the restaurant? Remember, you don't want the government to fill in the gaps. For you. You're laying it out for them so that they can understand. Now they're going through this information, they're going to start asking you some more specifics again about information about your abilities. Now this is going to sound goofy, but follow along with me. When they start getting you to this portion right here, the sections about your abilities pay close attention to what you've talked about already. So what does that mean. Well, remember now you've by this point, you're at page six of eight, so you've already answered about five pages of worth of information. So you want to make

14:11 sure you spell out how all these things affect your ability. And when I mean all these things, I'm talking about all these things here through here. You want to explain how all those things affects your ability to do things. And so when you're thinking about it, when you're thinking about it, think about the answers that you've already provided. Think about the fact that if you say I can do my own bills, I can take care of my own appointments, I go to places on my own. But then you say you have memory issues so or you have problems with concentration, They're going to say, Okay, how do we weigh those two. You're saying you have problems, but we can't tell from your prior answers how you actually have problems.

14:46 So it says, how far can you walk before you need to stop to take a break? You know, and stop and rest you know, for how long? For how long can you pay attention you want to when you're answering these questions. This is going to sound not saying that you've you're like a homework assignment, but pay close attention to the nature of how you've explained things previously in your earlier answer. So this way the two kind of match up with each other. Now you want to be as descriptive as possible when they start asking you some of these very particular things that may seem kind of weird, like, you know, how well do you get along with authority figures? Have you ever been fired or laid off? And so forth?

15:30 How well do you handle stress? So it's so easy to say, how well do you handle stress? I don't, Well, that doesn't tell anybody anything. Be specific, how well do you handle changes and routine? I don't What does that mean? You want to make sure you spell out well, for instance, how well you have and most people say, I don't know how to explain it. Yes, you do. What happens when you get stressed? Well ABCDEFG. Well guess what, that's how you handle stress?

15:54 Like I've had. I had a client once I asked, I said, how do you have a stress? Not? Well, that didn't tell me anything. Well, what do you want me to say? When I get stressed out? All? You know, I get upset, I get mad, I get agitating, and then I end up, you know, going into my room, shutting the door for hours on end. You've just told me how you handle stress. Oh, it's just it's really not overly complicated. It's just this you just you've got to remember you are an expert on you educate everybody about how you are. And same thing when you start getting down to devices and so forth. If you use crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, canes, things of that nature, the Social Security is going to want to know are you getting that on your own or is somebody prescribing,

16:33 because they're going to start looking through the medical records to see if somebody actually prescribed you these things. All these things are useful tools for you for them. And finally, here's the section you not you need to fill in the blanks for anything that's missing. You want to use this as an opportunity right here to provide anything extra that you may have overlooked. Okay, make sure you take the opportunity to let them know the medications you're taking, if you're taking anything or any side effects. And more importantly, who filled out this form for you? Okay, who filled out this form for you? You want them to know if it was you or someone else, So this way they'll know if somebody had to help you with this form or not. I

17:22 know I went through this form a little quickly. I could have easily made this video an hour long. I just didn't want to bore you guys to death going over each one. If you'd like me to do a longer video on filling out a form, or if there's particular forms that you'd like some guidance on, let me know and I'll be more unhappy to do a longer video on that. I hope this helps you out everybody. I know these forms are paying the backside. But remember Social Security is trying to get educated about you. You are an expert on you, so make sure you take the time to educate you with the passage of the passage