How a Vocational Expert Documents the Effect of a Claimant’s Psychiatric Impairments

A vocational expert can be very helpful in establishing a Social Security Disability claimant’s ability to return to work. The expert may be necessary to show that in fact, the claimant may not be able to return to work, or any other suitable jobs, due to psychiatric impairments.

A vocational evaluation performed by a vocational expert can document how an individual claimant’s inability to cope with co-workers requires “low stress” jobs. An evaluation can also prove a claimant’s other psychiatric impairments, such as impaired concentration and inability to stay on task. Such impairments affect the claimant’s ability to be competitively employed, and a  vocational expert’s testimony  is the best way to evidence this.

Occupational Assessment Services, Inc. (OAS) specializes in vocational expert testimony in  Social Security Disability cases  and has helped prove many claimants’ psychiatric impairments that limit their ability to work. One case OAS worked on involved a 35-year-old claimant who worked as a tractor-trailer driver for ten years. Due to an accident, he was diagnosed with severe depression. The claimant had attempted to commit suicide twice and required hospitalization.  Vocational testing  performed by OAS vocational experts indicated the claimant had severe vocational limitations due to his emotional condition. The OAS vocational expert’s opinion was that due to the claimant’s psychiatric impairments, he was not competitively employable and could not perform substantial gainful work activity.

To find out how a vocational expert can assist in your Social Security Disability case, contact OAS’s experienced team of board certified rehabilitation and vocational counselors at  800-292-1919. We will gladly answer any questions you may have about the role of vocational experts at disability hearings. We have served as experts for the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) and have been retained by claimants to independently evaluate and help them win disability cases, so we are very familiar with both sides of Social Security Disability cases.