Applying for SSI

Thank you - I will talk to someone at the hospital and see if they will help. She does have Missouri medicaid (and I believe it goes through her 23rd birthday), so she does have some limited insurance. This will at least cover medical hospital expenses - that saved her another 5 or 10 thousand dollars. But it won't cover any doctor's visits or anything psychiatric related - her major medical expense. And we live in Illinois - so many places won't accept it anyway. I've been told that to get Illinois medicaid, we would have to cancel Missouri medicaid before beginning the application process, it would take 5-6 months for the application to be processed (during which time she would have nothing), and then she wouldn't be guaranteed that she would even get Illinois medicaid. I'm afraid to cancel. Although she's doing so well right now, things change for her in a blink of an eye. She could fall apart today. She fell off a balcony the other day - fortunately just severely sprained her foot - and I really thought we were back. But it seems that is was just a very unfortunate accident. With her two diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder and depression, hospitals are a common occurence. The depression causes her to actually hurt herself. She's stuck wires up her wrists, drunk bleach, thrown herself down stairs - you name it, she's probably tried it. The Borderline Personality Disorder causes her to seek out attention - especially in hospitals. She fakes things to get sent to the hospital. A few months ago she started faking grand mal seizures. She's very convincing when she fakes. I actually do have grand mal seizures, so she knows what they look like. Although I was fairly sure they were faked, it still wasn't safe to ignore them. Another trip (or 3) to the hospital. Which is why I was suspicious of the fall. First, because she'd had a real situation the night before in which we had to visit Urgent Care (her psychiatrist's office told us to go to the ER) and didn't receive much attention. They sent her home and told her to take some over-the-counter meds. Also, it was just like the episodes at her dad's house when she threw herself down a flight of stairs and threw herself off a second story balcony. I was also suspicious that after falling from a second story balcony, she would only sprain a foot - not even break it - and nothing else was hurt. And then there are the incidents that start as an attempt for attention and in the process she actually hurts herself. What often happens is she goes to the ER (or wherever), if needed they admit her to the regular hospital long enough to treat whatever the immediate medical need is, and then they transfer her to the hospital psychiatric ward for 5-6 days (not usually covered because it's psychiatric). Recently, she repeatedly tried to hurt herself in the hospital psychiatric ward and they finally gave up, said they couldn't keep her safe, and transferred her to a longer-term facility where she stayed for 5 months. Last semester, before the doctor told her to limit the number of hours she took at school, she was taking 17 semester hours (4 classes). She was doing great in her classes. She had 3 A's and a B. One week before finals, she ended up in the psychiatric hospital and had to drop all her classes. She had 3 different stays in hospital psychiatric wards, each 5-6 days long before she was transferred to the longer-term hospital. The doctor said it was the stress of classes that caused it. This is when he told her to limit her hours. So between these two problems, she often spends more time in the hospital than home. I'd be very afraid to try to go 6 months without it. I'm just pulling out my hair trying to help her. I'm often afraid to leave the house to go to work. There have been times I've made her come with me and sit with me throughout my work-time. If I don't go to work, I don't get paid - so I can't just take a few days off. I can't afford to.

Did the doctor tell her to limit herself before or after she was turned down for SSI? If after I would try to get a statement from that doctor explaining how the stress of "real life" affects her. She obviously needs some type of assistance. From what you have described I would think working a full time job would be equally hard on her and inability to work is one of the factors when qualifying for SSI isn't it?

Very good! Thank you! Yes, the doctor told her to ease off since she was turned down. I'll talk to her doctor, or ask her to talk to the doctor, and see if he would do that. Even going into child-care, I am afraid of her trying to work full-time. That goal might be a bit out of her reach, at least right now.

Thank you! I'm always interested in other directions we can go. I don't want to teach her that it's ok to rely on her disabiity for the rest of her life. I'm trying very hard to help instill independence in her. Right now, I think she's doing admirably. But for a few months, we need some help.