Personally Speaking: Applying for SSDI for Family Members with SMI
By Nancy Smith
During our son’s first hospitalization, for schizoaffective and bipolar disorders, a hospital social worker suggested we apply for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) for him. We were given the name of an attorney that specialized in SSDI applications. After a brief conversation with the attorney and being made aware of the cost of her services, we decided to begin the application process ourselves.
The first time we contacted the Social Security office, we discovered that our son had actually filed for SSDI prior to his hospitalization. Since he had not completed his application, the representative was going to try to reopen his case due to the extenuating circumstances of his severe mental illness and his inability to manage his own care. Our son had filed in March of 2009 and his application was successfully reopened in October 2009.
His application was finally approved in February of 2010. It was a long and tortuous journey to get our son the help that he desperately needed.
Here are some best practices to live by if you need to apply for SSDI and Medicare insurance for your family member with SMI:
#1: Save every document from your family member’s psychiatric care and past/current hospitalizations because the Social Security office needs proof of your family member’s illness to initiate a claim.
#2: Write down the name of the first representative you speak with at the Social Security Office, and everyone thereafter! It is also imperative that you ask for all the information they can provide regarding their direct phone lines, extensions, fax numbers, emails and office locations. Take notes during each and every one of your conversations and write down the date and time of each call. Keep all this information in one folder.
#3: Stay in constant communication with the one representative that seemed the most helpful. I still have all the faxed and emailed communications pertaining to our son. We had to supply our son’s psychiatric testing, hospital records, the medications he had tried (and failed), and agree to one of us becoming his representative payee. We made sure that the rep responded to every communication we forwarded so that we did not lose valuable time in getting our son approved. Note: It does take a few months beyond approval until payments begin, but at that time you will receive back-payments from the date of approval.
#4: Never hesitate to reach out to your county offices if your family member needs financial assistance before SSDI and Medicare can be put in place. It also helps to go in-person. Fortunately for us, the county where we reside has a program for uninsured individuals to receive medical care while still on a court order for outpatient treatment. This program enabled our son to get psychiatric treatment, as well as his medication.
#5: Start right away. Once you are approved for SSDI, it is a two year wait to receive Medicare insurance. As it happened, just as our son’s last hospitalization ended, his Medicare insurance coverage began. If your family member is incapable of working, I would recommend that you start the application for SSDI as soon as possible. An attorney may be helpful, but many of us who care for family members with SMI are entrenched in paying for psychiatrists or safe housing, and attorneys aren’t always a financial option. With perseverance, it is possible to do this without an attorney.
It sounds simple enough. It wasn’t. Nothing about caring for a family member with SMI is an easy journey. Please don’t stop calling or going in-person to discuss your family member’s situation. Help is out there, and society must do a better job of providing it for those in need.
Nancy Smith is retired and does volunteer work in Texas, where she resides with her husband and two senior rescue dogs.