Mental Health Residual Functional Capacity

Your mental residual functional capacity form documents what sort of work activities you can currently do. It documents which tasks you’re capable of doing regularly, despite your disability and related treatments (i.e., taking antidepressants or attending therapy sessions). The SSA reviews your mental residual functional capacity to determine whether you can perform previously held job tasks or any other, similar kind of work.

In determining your mental residual functional capacity, the SSA looks at both medical and non-medical evidence. For medical issues, the agency reviews your condition’s history, test results, diagnoses, treatments, responses, symptoms and current prognosis. For non-medical issues, the SSA reads reports submitted by people who know you and your condition well, including how it affects your daily life.

The mental residual functional capacity assessment helps the SSA determine if you are able to:

-Complete tasks on a schedule

-Understand, remember and complete instructions

-Maintain concentration and attention for long periods of time

-Make simple judgment calls and decisions

-Interact in an appropriate manner with others

-Maintain regular, on-time job attendance

-Tolerate normal amounts of stress

-Keep up a regular routine without supervision

-Get along with coworkers without being a distraction

-Respond well and adapt to work setting changes

-Stay clean and neat

-Accept feedback appropriately

After completing your mental residual functional capacity review, the SSA will declare that you are one of the following:

-not significantly limited

-moderately limited

-markedly limited

-that there is insufficient evidence to make a determination in your Social Security disability case

You may qualify for SSDI benefits if you’re markedly limited in certain areas.  A marked limitation may arise when several activities or functions are impaired, or even when only one is impaired, as long as the degree of limitation is such as to interfere seriously with your ability to function independently, appropriately, effectively, and on a sustained basis.  That would be because you’re unable to perform even simple tasks requiring little to no skill. If the SSA finds you moderately limited, the agency will look for any unskilled jobs you can hold down. This remains true even if it’s something you haven’t done before as a job task. If you are mentally capable of doing one of these jobs, the SSA may deny your Social Security disability claim

Your intellectual functioning is also considered by the SSA in determining your mental RFC.

You may sometimes see the phrase "decompensation" in SSA reports. Episodes of decompensation are periods of temporary increase in the symptoms of your disorder that require increased medical treatment or a less stressful situation. The SSA will look at how often and how long you have episodes of decompensation.

The SSA will look at both medical and nonmedical evidence in determining your RFC. Your medical record should include all tests (including psychological tests), reports, and observations from medical sources specifically setting forth how often, if at all, you experience things such as: delusions, hallucinations, or paranoid ideas; confusion; phobias or anxiety; and depression or withdrawn behavior. Hopefully your medical record also contains your medical history, any mental status evaluations, and results of psychological tests, diagnoses, treatments prescribed and what your response was, symptoms from treatment, and prognosis.

If you need help applying for Social Security Disability or SSI, please contact me at joshben99@gmail.com. I have over 20 years experience with Social Security Disability cases. I handle cases all over the United States.