Disability Compensation for Veterans With Mental Disorders Other Than PTSD
Certain mental disorders can make it difficult to live your day-to-day life at times. Depending on the severity of the health condition, it could affect your personal relationships, ability to maintain employment and ability to support yourself or your family. However, you may be entitled to receive monthly disability compensation benefits that can effectively minimize your financial struggles. At Bosley & Bratch, our VA disability attorneys are dedicated to providing disabled veterans with the legal help they need to acquire VA benefits to which they are entitled and to obtain the support system that is frequently necessary following a term of service — even if that service was years or even decades ago.
Veterans' lawyers you can trust — Our attorneys know veterans' disability law. In fact, four of our firm's attorneys are veterans themselves. When seeking VA disability benefits in Florida, Indiana or anywhere else in the United States, put our experience, understanding and determination on your side. Contact an experienced VA disability lawyer at Bosley & Bratch by calling 866-974-0705. Free consultations.
VA Disability Compensation — Not Just for Veterans With a PTSD Diagnosis
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is just one of the many potential after-effects of exposure to combat trauma or other experiences during military service. Depression, anxiety, chronic pain and other conditions can manifest themselves after exposure to combat, sexual assault, physical assault or another traumatic event in the service.
What many veterans suffering from a mental disorder do not realize is that they may be entitled to obtain service-connected disability compensation for various other mental disorders other than PTSD that occurred in or were aggravated during military service.
Service-Connected Mental Disorders
The major difference between PTSD disability claims and claims involving other mental disorders is that with other mental disorders the veteran is not required to prove a stressful event.
The list of mental disorders recognized by the VA includes:
- Mood Disorders including Bipolar, Dysthymic and Major Depressive
- Depression
- Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia
- Anxiety Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder
- Delusional Disorder
- Psychotic Disorder
- Dementia
- Organic Mental Disorder
- Phobia(s)
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
- Dissasociative Amnesia, Fugue, Identity Disorder (multiple personality disorder)
- Depersonalization disorder
- Somatoform Disorders
- Chronic Adjustment Disorder
Personality Disorders — Don't Let the Wrong Diagnosis Jeopardize Your Claim
Under current VA regulations, a veteran is not entitled to receive service-connected disability benefits for a personality disorder because the condition exists prior to military service — typically showing up during childhood. However, it's not surprising that the military has a long history of misdiagnosing these conditions and/or using a "personality disorder" diagnosis as a basis for separating a service member without having to provide any benefits.
The military also used (or abused) the "personality disorder" diagnosis to allow service members to leave the service, all the while unknowingly losing potential benefits. In many of these cases the service members were actually suffering from other mental disorders including PTSD, anxiety disorder, depression, schizophrenia, etc., that entitle them to service-connected disability benefits.
Disability Ratings for Mental Disorders
If a veteran is granted service-connected disability for a mental disorder, the VA will assign a rating based on the current severity of the symptoms. This is the same rating system used for PTSD claims. Unfortunately, for many people suffering from a mental disability, it takes the experienced advocacy of a relentless veterans' disability lawyer to ensure the VA complies with its own published rating system.
Below are the specific regulations on how the VA is supposed to rate mental disorder claims based upon the level of social and occupational impairment as determined by various symptoms. These ratings are 0, 10, 30, 50, 70 and 100 percent. A veteran's disability rating will influence monthly compensation amounts.
100 Percent Disability Rating: Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as:
- Gross impairment in thought processes or communications
- Persistent delusions or hallucinations
- Grossly inappropriate behavior
- Persistent danger of hurting self or others
- Intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene)
- Disorientation to time or place
- Memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name
70 Percent Disability Rating: Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking or mood, due to such symptoms as:
- Suicidal ideation
- Obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities
- Speech intermittently illogical, obscure or irrelevant
- Near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively
- Impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation
- Neglect of personal appearance and hygiene
- Difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a work-like setting)
- Inability to establish and maintain effective relationships
50 Percent Disability Rating: Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as:
- Flattened affect
- Circumstantial, circumlocutory or stereotyped speech
- Panic attacks more than once a week
- Difficulty in understanding complex commands
- Impairment of short and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks)
- Impaired judgment
- Impaired abstract thinking
- Disturbances of motivation and mood
- Difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships
30 Percent Disability Rating: Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent period of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as:
- Depressed mood
- Anxiety
- Suspiciousness
- Panic attacks (weekly or less often)
- Chronic sleep impairment
- Mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events)
10 Percent Disability Rating: Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or symptoms controlled by continuous medication.
0 Percent Disability Rating: A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.
How Can an Experienced VA Disability Lawyer Help?
Claims for mental disorders are constantly underrated by the VA, either because insufficient information was submitted evidencing the severity of the symptoms, or because the VA blatantly disregarded the evidence of the severity of symptoms. When hiring an experienced VA disability attorney, rather than entrusting your case to one of the many available (yet inexperienced) organizations, you enhance your chances for success in resolving your case favorably and obtaining the full amount of benefits to which you are entitled. You also eliminate many of the frustrations that you have already been subjected to already — our lawyers take on the hassles, burdens, etc., so that you can focus on your medical care and your family.
Contact a National PTSD Disability Lawyer
Our knowledge of VA disability ratings, our thoroughness in documenting evidence, and our determination to holding the VA to its own standards make us an equalizer in the VA system. Contact us for a free consultation with an experienced veterans' disability lawyer at Bosley & Bratch. We work hard to ensure your claim is not wrongfully denied or unfairly rated. Call us toll free from anywhere in the United States at 1-866-974-0705.
