Library & Tools

After completing the SOAR Online Course, case workers implementing the SOAR model with SSI/SSDI applications should complete the following steps as part of a standard SOAR workflow. This process is a collaborative effort between the SOAR provider, the Social Security Administration (SSA), and Disability Determination Services (DDS) that enables SOAR case workers to complete the SSI/SSDI application process efficiently and effectively.

Understanding SSA's disability criteria helps the SOAR case manager assess the documentation necessary to support the claim of disability.

This graphic provides an overview of how SSA and DDS process disability applications.

Here are examples of completed SSA and SOAR Forms using information from a fictitious SSI child applicant.

This webinar, held on January 22, 2020, explored Step 3 and Step 5 of SSA's Sequential Evaluation process -- the only two steps at which an applicant can be found disabled.

Peers have a unique ability to engage with individuals and help people share information about how their conditions affect their ability to function, treatment sources, and collateral sources of evidence. This issue brief developed by the SAMHSA SOAR TA Center explores how peers are a natural fit to help people with the SSI/SSDI application process using SOAR.

SSA is now evaluating the long-term effects of COVID-19 when determining disability. On April 16, 2021, SSA issued an Emergency Message (EM) with guidance to its employees for evaluating adult disability cases that include an allegation or diagnosis of COVID-19. Here are the key points of the EM as well as tips for SOAR practitioners to effectively represent SSI/SSDI applicants whose functioning is impacted by COVID-19.

In an effort to better identify appropriate SOAR claimants, identifying claims which are more likely to have a favorable outcome is paramount. Social Security has developed Special Medical Vocational Profiles, which are rare combinations of adversities that combine, along with impairments, to result in a finding of disabled. 

The SAMHSA SOAR TA Center is proud to debut a new resource guide on practical ways that SOAR can be integrated into the peer-certification process. 

Highlighted below are some of the ways peers from around the country have incorporated their lived expertise into their SOAR work.