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hi thank you for joining us for today's video my name is Brandon and we're going to be discussing
high value mental health VA claims and how to increase your VA rating for your mental health
conditions let's talk about some of the commonly filed high-value mental health claims now certain
mental health conditions are considered what we call high-value claims because veterans
usually have a high likelihood of getting at least a 30 rating for some of the conditions
that we're going to talk about in this video Frank I'm going to kick this over to you so
you can start us off can you tell us about our first high value mental health VA claim
yes definitely so first we're going to talk about post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD
that is a mental health condition that results from experiencing a distressing shocking or
otherwise traumatic event it is rated under diagnostic code 9411 VA rates PTSD under the
schedule of ratings for mental disorders that's 38 CFR 4.130 and again under diagnostic code 9411
these ratings can range from 0 30 50 70 or even 100 percent these ratings are based on the level
of Social and occupational impairment as well as the frequency duration and severity of symptoms
it's also important to note that veterans do not need to exhibit all symptoms listed in
the diagnostic criteria the criteria are meant to serve as examples of the type and degree of
symptoms that would justify a particular rating veterans can have any number of symptoms listed
in the rating criteria and still meet that evaluation great thanks for the information
Frank Matt I'm going to kick this one over you can you talk to us about the next high
value claim we see for mental health conditions let's talk about depression yeah so depression
is a serious mental health condition that affects the way a person thinks feels and acts depression
including major depressive disorder is rated under the general rating formula for mental
health disorders so the same as PTSD like we were just talking about and also similar to PTSD
major depressive disorder and other depressive disorders are rated at 0 30 50 70 or 100 percent
depending on the level of Social and occupational impairment that the condition causes the veteran
great thanks for that information and now that we've spoken about PTSD depression let's round
this off with anxiety now anxiety is defined as intense excessive and persistent worry and fear
about everyday situations there are several types of anxiety disorders however such as generalized
anxiety disorder panic disorder and various other phobia Related Disorders very very similar to PTSD
and depression and most other mental health conditions VA uses the general rating formula
for mental health disorders to assign the same ratings that we previously previously discussed
for the other conditions which is you can either get a zero a30 a 50 a 70 or a 100 rating based on
the social and occupational impairment you kind of see this theme moving along mental health
conditions are typically rated on that scale so 0 30 50 70 and even 100 but there's one condition
that is a little bit different that we also see as a high value mental health claim um that we've
seen here in our experience at cck Frank let's talk about TBI yeah so traumatic brain injury or
TBI can be caused by many factors such as a Blow To The Head or an object penetrating the brain
it may result in brain dysfunction and some symptoms of TBI may include memory loss
and inability to follow directions headaches and even personality changes VA will rate tbis based
on the residual symptoms a veteran is currently experiencing due to that trauma under 38 CFR
4.124 a and these ratings can also range from 0 to 100 as we've been talking about great thank
you Frank Now Matt I'm going to kick this next part over to you so what if I were to ask you the
question should my mental health disability rating be higher yeah so to get a VA rating
that accurately reflects the severity of your mental health condition it's important that VA
understands your level of Social and occupational impairment as well as the frequency duration and
severity of your symptoms it is really really important that you attend your mental health
CMP exam and carefully explain to the VA examiner what you are experiencing on a daily basis and how
your condition affects your ability to function at work at home with your family and friends
Etc you can also use other evidence including lay statements from family friends and others who
might understand and could speak to the level of impairment that you currently experience
great great information Matt thank you for that so what if you want to increase your
mental health VA rating what should you do so if you feel that you're a service-connected mental
health condition is more severe than your current disability rating reflects you can do one of the
following you can file an appeal within uh within va's deadlines which is typically one year from
the date for most types of appeals to file an appeal you can file a new claim for an increase
rating for that mental health condition you can file for tdiu if you believe that your service
connected conditions render you uh basically unable to obtain or maintain substantially
gainful employment so essentially if you feel that your service connected condition or your
mental health condition alone has prevented you from maintaining or obtaining employment
you can file for tdiu and lastly you can even file a claim for secondary service connection
if you have symptoms or conditions that result from an already service connected disability we
have a ton more videos concerning that topic specifically at our cck blog and even our
various YouTube pages so I definitely encourage you to check those out if you're interested
if you need help with your appeal if you kind of fall into the app category you may benefit from
contacting an accredited representative or even an attorney the cck team offers free case evaluations
to see if we can assist as well so I know we spoke a little bit about secondary service connection so
Frank can you kind of unpack that a little bit for us specifically in the context of secondary
service connection for mental health disorders yes definitely so veterans who develop a condition as
due to their service connected mental health condition may be able to qualify for secondary
service connection benefits these benefits will increase their overall disability rating
and the following are some common secondary conditions to mental health disorders
first we have hypertension secondary to PTSD veterans with PTSD may also develop
hypertension secondary to their PTSD due to the increased stress and anxiety they experience
second we have sleep apnea secondary to PTSD research has indicated that veterans with PTSD
are at a higher risk of developing sleep apnea and third we even have
migraines secondary to PTSD depression or anxiety as stress can trigger migraines
veterans with PTSD or any other mental health condition often suffer from migraines as well
so filing for secondary service connection allows veterans to reach higher levels of compensation
it may also help and qualify Veterans for other VA benefits such as the total disability rating
based on individual unemployability or just tdiu what we were talking about earlier
which again compensates veterans at the 100 level and we have a ton more videos about any
of those topics as well so if you're interested please feel free to check the check those out
great thank you Frank and thank you Matt for all the information thank you for watching our
high value mental health VA claims be sure to like this video And subscribe to our channel
for more veteran related content we've added links below for each of the topics that we've discussed
and we've mentioned today so I encourage you to kind of check those out kind of see if you can
gain some more information and some insight about some of the topics we discussed today
for more information on VA compensation for mental health conditions specifically and for even more
information on how to file a mental health claim uh definitely check out our video it's VA General
rating formula for mental health disorders explain you can go through the entire process of filing
for a service connected disability claim for your mental health condition thank you for watching
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