Mental Disorders Rule Update
Reading Time: 2 MinutesLast Updated: September 23, 2016
On Monday, September 26, Social Security will publish a final rule to update the criteria we use to evaluate disability claims involving mental disorders. This rule, “Revised Medical Criteria for Evaluating Mental Disorders,” is the most comprehensive revision to the criteria since 1985.
Upon publishing this final rule, our standards and terminology for evaluating claims involving mental disorders reflect information from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition — the mental health profession’s current standard classification of mental disorders.
While updating this rule, the public had questions about our criteria for evaluating intellectual disability. From childhood onward, people with intellectual disabilities experience deficits in intellectual functioning and lack many basic daily practical and social skills. We decided it was critical to ensure these individuals receive necessary assistance as soon as possible. Therefore, we updated the diagnostic and functional criteria for this disorder and are using IQ test score criteria to identify quickly people who may qualify for disability benefits based on an intellectual disability.
Besides reflecting comments from members of the public, the rule reflects the expertise of disability policy experts, adjudicators, psychiatric professionals, and vocational experts.
During the careful, considered process of updating the rule, we’ve engaged with stakeholders, including: disability beneficiaries and their family members; psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health treatment providers; and advocacy groups for those with mental disorders. We also solicited, responded to, and incorporated public comments, and considered an intellectual disability report we commissioned from the National Academy of Sciences.
People with mental disorders are some of the most vulnerable members in our society, and we take our duty to provide them with effective service and support seriously. Publishing this rule is just one way we’re meeting our priority to secure today and tomorrow for millions throughout life’s journey.
You can learn more about the rule here.
Did you find this Information helpful?
About the Author
Doug Walker, Deputy Commissioner, Communications
Deputy Commissioner, Office of Communications
Comments
Comments are closed.
Michael A.
I have bi polar1, ocd, add gad. I have problems with society. I have been on ssdi for 6 and half years. Seeing 2 Drs. I Was impatient last year.. Iam doing and taking the meds I need, but I can have 4 people explain. I am not getting better. Even the pyciatrist said. ” I will b A sick men the rest of my life. Cdr again every 3 years. I don’t work can’t get along with people. I feel like people don’t believe me unless u know me.
Joyce
I have to say that I find it very hard to believe that mental illness is taken seriously here. My child is 19 now and has been ill with ADHD since 5 years of age. She has been diagnosed with bipolar and depression. Since her father passed away, I was advised to file under him. Since I did, I have been fighting for her disability and now they are stopping her benefits. I dont know what to do. She needs her benefits. Life for her is very difficult and for me to help her, is impossible without her benefits. I fear for her every day. To say that society takes advantage of these ill and vulnerable people is putting it lightly. From what I have had to do and how the Local Social Security Office has treated my daughter, how can they even say they care or take this seriously. My daughter is a victim of her illness, society abuses and the abuse of the office of Social Security Disabilities Administration. We need help fast !!! Anyone here with info here to stop what is happening to her ??? I am to the point where I dont want to live anymore !!!
Brandy S.
Should a person who is diagnosed with Severe crippling social anxiety disorder and are unable to leave their home had to go to the social security office for an appointment?
R.F.
Hi Brandy. You should apply for disability benefits as soon as you become disabled. In addition to contacting your local Social Security office, you can apply online or call our toll free telephone number at 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778). See our Disability Planner: How You Apply for more information. Thanks!
Mr R.
DO YOU NEED URGENT LOAN AT 3% RATE? REPLY BACK TO (raymond.smithfirm55@yahoo.com) WITH YOUR FULL NAME, AMOUNT NEEDED, DURATION YEARS, MOBILE NUMBER.
Troy
My wife has Major depression, anxiety disorder, post manic stress disorder and has white matter on the brain and is cognitively impaired along with some other problems. I am not going to tell a long storie on what we go through every day, but we have been fighting for her to have SSDI from 12/2013 to when she was again denied 9/2017. The lawyers are fighting for her and will take this to District Court. She worked all her life up to when she snapped in 2012. She seen a therapist for 4 years tell they said they could not help her. She is still seeing a psychiatrist and a neurologist. She has to take many med’s just to make her want to get out of bed or even go out side with me. She has never drove a car do to the severe anxiety that I have had to take her to the hospital for. She cant pay bills cant be around other people cant keep concentration long enough to understand simple instructions, she has a very hard time communicating or even understand what’s being said and the list go’s on are life is a living hell. I am disabled had three long surgeries and can’t walk very far without having a very hard time breathing. I get the $735.00 a month that don’t make ends meet so we are living in a basement now for a few years making things much harder on her mental disorders not to mention the dampness being hard on my lungs. We have proven all her problems through all the specialist we have seen still Social Security will not help her. My fear is if my lungs give out and I die as I am pushing 60 what will happen to her with no help out there for an American female that did her best to work as long as she could with all her problems to pay tax’s for every one else that needed help when she was working. She is just two years younger then me in her 50’s maybe if she was a refugee they would set her up with a house and car that some one else will have to drive her in and a EBT card for food that some one else would have to go get for her because she can’t go out on her own, and cash that some one else will have to manage for her as she can even do simple math to pay bills and Medical, but she’s just a white female American right?
dani
” Hello to every body, it’s my first go to see of this webpage; this web site carries awesome and truly good stuff in favor of visitors. ”
wretye5ryabcd.com
sherri
I want to appreciate Dr Ogdiagbe for using his herbal medicine to cure my family herpes virus,since 3 years ago my family have been having this herpes disease and it have been giving my family challenges,we were so perplexed cause my family have taken several drugs to be cure but every of our effort was in-vain,a fateful morning i was browsing through the internet then i saw several testimonies about Dr Ogdiagbe curing people of their herpes disease immediately i contacted Dr Ogdiagbe on his email: {ogdiagbecurehome77@gmail.com}, told him about my family troubles and he told me that my family must be cure,so he prepare a herbal medicine for my family which we use for 2 weeks and everything was like a dream for my family,my family herpes disease was totally gone,why don’t you contact him today and be free from your disease on email: ogdiagbecurehome77@gmail.com contact him today for any sickness or infections for 100% guarantee cure, your health is your wealth.
Funny I.
Thanks for sharing such a good information, I’ve tried to find this for so long.
Judith P.
I have hit 3 major emotional bottoms in my life over my 52 years. Trauma and abuse I experienced in childhood at home and at school I was unconsciously recreating at work since 2004. I tried to become self-employed as a Certified Holistic Health Counselor in order to reclaim my dignity and self respect. After 6 six years of trying that career which almost brought me to the brink of divorce and financial ruin I went back to administrative work. I abandoned that kind of work I am born to do after being called a detriment by my boss when I chose not to commit fraud and then was fired for being insubordinate. As an administrative assistant I became a workaholic trying to prove I was a good worker. Working 40 hours plus, my mental and physical health declined quickly. I was terminated even though I produced highly favorable results for them and was promised a raise. I was told the environment was not suited for me emotionally. I was unemployed for 2 years. The only job I could get was part-time work and even that was extremely stressful. For 3 years I have been working 30 hours a week. That is all I can truly handle because of participation in four 12 Step recovery programs; one for food, work, money, & trauma and abuse in childhood. This job provided a low pressure environment for the first year and a half. After 3 years, the stress from increased expectations and dealing with dishonest people without boundaries that are putting me in the middle of their dysfunction has me losing sleep. When anxiety and depression hit, adrenaline rushes causes migraines that land me in bed for a week. My mind disassociates and I can’t remember what I am going to say or do or what I am doing. That causes more stress at home for everyone when I don’t remember to turn the stove off. At work I feel stress because I am expected to perform at full capacity and I can’t at times.
I cannot predict what is going to happen in a day and how my body and mind are going to react.
Would someone with this degree of emotional challenges qualify for SSI benefits? I am not seeking a free ride. I don’t need that because I am capable of doing something. I would just need a supplement to bring my salary up to an administrative assistant who works 40 hours a week while working 30.
Keith B.
I spent a whole year in a psychiatric hospital, with a serious suicide attempt. It took a while for me to get my SSSI benefits. I have had quite a few jobs and got my ssi cut, my food stamps got cut, and my housing got cut by a hundred dollars. I earned. A lot more money even though. I think if and when I get a job this time, I should give my adult protective payee my paychecks and let her budget them. Therefore I won’t have to worry about money problems. I tried the online schooling thing but could not cut the grade and have had many of credit cards, and got into trouble with them. I could not pay them back, and had to write them cease a desist letters! What a big hassle all that was! I am so glad to be out of debt and free and clear of everything. I would like to get another job and earn a little bit of money, but do not want to get caught up in any more scams and loan sharks ever again!!!!!!!!!