A Daughter Helps her Mom in Oklahoma

My mom, Marie, is a Cherokee woman in her mid-50's that lives in an extremely rural part of northeastern Oklahoma where resources are scarce. Assistance from the Cherokee Nation has enabled her to hold onto her modest trailer home 45 minutes from the closest town, but her physical conditions have progressively worsened over the last five years, leaving her unable to work enough hours to maintain. In the last year, she has put off surgeries that might help because she couldn't afford to take the time off. At the same time, her work as a caregiver to the elderly and disabled has gotten more physically risky and contributed to her physical decline. 

Using the SOAR model, we submitted her SSI/SSDI applications in June 2023. Prior to this, I advised my mom to document her work history to the best of her ability and I assisted her in collecting all her medical records. It was a feat that took about a month's time, but we came prepared with six binders of medical records on the day we submitted her application.

We received favorable decisions for both SSI and SSDI in the first week of October, about 3.5 months later. Since then, my mom has continued to work a small amount, but her income is now supplemented by SSI and SSDI, allowing her the freedom to adjust her workload as needed (so long as she reports her income regularly). This flexibility has given her peace of mind, knowing that she can see the doctors she needs without interrupting her ability to pay her bills. In the next year, she's looking forward to finally getting the surgeries she needs, which we hope will improve her quality of life. From my perspective as her daughter, the ability to see her care for herself more meaningfully is invaluable. In the long term, it probably means that I will have her around longer because she isn't forced to risk her physical health in order to earn income. 

Being prepared with everything we needed before putting metaphorical pen to paper was so helpful! It allowed us to submit a complete and comprehensive application, so SSA wasn't left with a lot of questions to ask or follow-up to conduct. Because we were familiar with the SSA Blue Book listings, we were also able to highlight her conditions, treatment, and functional limitations in a way that addressed what we knew SSA would be looking for. In short, we gave them everything they needed to make a decision and I believe this contributed to how quickly our decisions were received.