Organic brain injuries or organic mental disorders are a loss of prior mental state or prior learned knowledge, skills, functions or abilities caused by trauma or illness. An individual with an organic brain disorder may have psychological or behavioral changes which they may or may not understand or recognize. An individual may have had a head injury, a stroke, residuals of medications or chemotherapy or dementia or Alzheimer's disease. This condition may be evaluated by a neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, psychologist, or a neuropsychologist. Tests such as MRIs, psychological or neuropsychological testing may demonstrate changes in the brain or losses of measured intellectual ability. Personality or behavior changes may include short-term or long-term memory loss, disorientation to time or place, problems with word finding, reading, perceptual or thinking disturbances or personality or mood changes.
Traumatic brain injury may involve the central nervous system and result in neurological and mental impairments with many posttraumatic symptoms.
Social Security will review whether an individual's impairment affects his ability to perform work activities, function in and out of the household, perform tasks and get along with others.
In order to prove your disability to Social Security, you need to either document that your condition or conditions meet or equal in severity the criteria found in the Social Security Commissioner's regulations or, if you are an adult, that your condition and symptoms are so severe that you are unable to work. If you are a child under 18, you must similarly show that your condition or conditions meet or equal in severity the criteria in the Social Security Commissioner's regulations or that your condition or conditions functionally equals the Commissioner's regulations. The law firm of Sheryl Gandel Mazur has experienced disability attorneys and has been representing individuals in their Social Security disability appeals for over twenty five years. Let us help you receive your Social Security disability benefits.
Our disability law firm represents individuals:
- In filing their initial disability applications
- In handling cases at the initial level including appealing initial denials
- In handling cases at the reconsideration level including appealing reconsideration denials
- In handling cases at the hearings level
- In appealing and handling cases at the Appeals Council level
- In appealing and handling cases at the Federal Court level
This firm also handles SSI child's disability cases at all levels.
Organizations: Brain Injury Association of America (www.biausa.org); in New Jersey: Brain Injury Association of New Jersey (http://www.bianj.org/), New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research (www.state.nj.us/health/njcbir), Spectrum Foundation (http://www.spectrumforliving.org/), Dawn (www.dawncil.org) , New Jersey Human Services Department of Disabilities (www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dds)
