The number of people on SSI correlates, not with the number of people who actually have the purported ailment for which these people get paid, but instead with the lack of work in these states, or it should if my theory is correct. I haven't checked and can't today as a friend is coming over to repaint me house.

Also, it's easier to get SSI for mental illness than for anything else because it's all subjective, there is no test for MI. Still lots of people who apply get denied.

I assume these numbers are the percentage of people on ssi who get it for mi, and that you are not saying that over 50 percent of the total population of MA gets SSI.

Still, SSI is absorbing people our economy has abandoned and the end result will be a disaster. Parents on SSI routinely get their kids labeled mi seeing the ssi benefits as a stipend. Many people on ssi have hobbies and unreported secondary sources of income. Living on SSI means living in a powerless poverty for most, but compared to the powerlessness and poverty of working a minimum wage service job, it's paradise. Minimum wage employees have jobs that cause physical and mental injury and no health care, minimum wage employees are human and thus like to sleep indoors, on minimum wage housing is not affordable. SSI guarantees health care and housing, so long as you give over your life to the state.

Virtually no one on SSI for MI is actually debilitated by their thoughts, moods, or perceptions though many are debilitated by the experience of working minimum wage service jobs.

So I recommend that our nation actually create decent, rewarding living wage jobs for us, its citizens, a tall order.

My guess would be that the folks applying for disability in NE have the wherewithal to hire lawyers specifically for this purpose.

My psychiatrist tells me there is a clear correlation between family IQ and severe mental illness aka bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Families with college degrees, and in particular masters and doctorates are *much* likelier to also produce the odd loon. If you compare average IQ between the states, you'll find some clear differences, that go back to the war between the states.

massachusetts is a very liberal state with a high degree of consciousness about social justice. i would say the rates reflect the state of the healthcare and disability bureaucracy in these states rather than anything about the incidence of mental illness in the different populations.

I hate to be a stickler, but are you meaning to say SSDI and not SSI? There's a very big difference between the purpose of the two.

Could it have something to do with the number of doctors that reside in New England? More doctors = more diagnoses.

To clarify:

SSDI: Social Security Disability Insurance

"The Social Security disability insurance program pays benefits to you and certain family members if you worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes. Your adult child also may qualify for benefits on your earnings record if he or she has a disability that started before age 22."

SSI: Supplemental Security Insurance

"The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program pays benefits to disabled adults and children who have limited income and resources. SSI benefits also are payable to people 65 and older without disabilities who meet the financial limits."

Regarding the increase in percentages of people awarded any type of Social Security benefits in New England:

"For the first time in 50 years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) is revamping its disability determination process. The final rule, which is intended to shorten decision times and pay out benefits faster, took effect August 1, 2006, in the New England region. This overhaul may temporarily increase disability payments as the SSA tries to catch up on a large backlog of claims, process new claims, and evaluate and tweak the new system. If disabled workers receive their payments faster, companies whose disability plans are integrated with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) should receive offsets to their disability benefit payouts more quickly as well."

and

"The new Disability Service Improvement (DSI) process should reduce administrative costs and processing time, and minimize geographic disparities. The DSI process is underway in Region I, which includes Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. The new process is currently being evaluated."

From the Social Security website as a primary source of information:

"One way to reduce the number of cases in the determination process is to use automation tools to screen cases. We have seen the success of the Quick Disability Determination (QDD) model currently in use in New England . This computer model identifies cases that are most likely to be allowed. To date, the New England states have decided 97% of these cases within the required 21 days and they have an average decision time of 11 days. About 85% of these cases have been allowed during the initial review, and more have been allowed with additional documentation. We plan to build on the success of the QDD because it is both efficient and compassionate for us to do so. To date, the majority of the 2.6% QDD cases are cancer cases because the model does not yet cull a wide enough variety of diseases. We are committed to pushing the number of cases that can be decided through QDD as high as we can possibly go while maintaining accuracy."

So, the New England states are not the worst states in numbers of people receiving any type of Social Security assistance, they are now the fastest, most efficient states in awarding SSDI and SSI benefits. The other states will catch up.

Also, there are many sad generalizations and assumptions in some of the comments above. “Virtually no one on SSI for MI is actually debilitated by their thoughts, moods, or perceptions . . . “ ??? “If you compare average IQ between the states, you'll find some clear differences, that go back to the war between the states.” ???

So that is my take on this issue.

P.S. I have previewed this and I have no idea why it will not break into paragraphs as I have typed them?

rocketdog,

For some reason, when you preview comments here the line breaks don't show up, but they do show up when posted in my experience. As someone who worked as a vocational expert in social security disability administrative law hearings, I assure you very few people applying for non exertional disability benefits, i.e. "mental illness" really meet even the dsm criteria for disability. Still they get paid. I wasn't in the business of determined if someone's mi allegations were valid, just saying if there were jobs they could do with limitations placed by shrinks. The problem is not mental illness the problem is a lack of jobs. Sure not being able to perform work that you like or find meaningful causes despair and unending social problems, not brain chemistry independent of external events.

Sally, thank you for explaining about the preview, I appreciate it.

I understand your view of what you have experienced based on your position at the SSA. But, as you said, you do not see the medical records or the process that takes place before the claim comes to you for review. You will never see how many people are approved for SSDI or SSI on initial application for mental illness. You will only see those people after their initial application has been denied and they are filing an appeal(s). By that time, they usually have retained legal counsel to handle their cases.

There are lots of reasons their claims are denied, and many are because they, as you said, don't come close to meeting the criteria for MI. That is why you, in your position, see so many of the scammers, like I have working in personal injury defense. There are many people who are awarded disability that are not disabled. But to say that "Virtually no one on SSI for MI is actually debilitated . . ." is not exactly accurate. I completely understand your point of view, I really dislike people who take advantage of benefits that should only be going to the truly disabled.