Bert Nash benefits team helps make the impossible possible for clients

The acronym is fitting.

SOAR.

The program’s full name – SSI (Supplemental Security Income)/SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) Outreach, Access and Recovery – is a mouthful. But what is it? SOAR is a national project that expedites the disability application process for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and have a mental illness. In short, SOAR – part of the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s Benefits and Entitlements Team (BET) – is a program that helps people who can’t help themselves.

Or, as Tamara Jefferies, a BET case manager says of the SOAR process, “It makes the impossible possible.”

Typically, applying for disability benefits can be a lengthy and complicated process, taking up to two to five years, if it goes through the appeal process. Of first-time applications, about 75 percent are denied. This is one of the reasons why people often turn to private disability insurance. Still, we need to understand the difference between private disability insurance and SSDI. Simply put, SSDI only covers total disability, while private disability insurers might cover total and partial disability.

However, with the SOAR process, the approval rate is higher. Much higher.

“Our goal is always to get them approved that first time,” said BET case manager Korrie Snell.

If an application is not approved at the first level, then the BET team will file what is called a request for reconsideration. The team’s success rate is impressive.

“Our success rate using SOAR is over 90 percent that get approved,” Snell said. Using SOAR also dramatically speeds up the process.

“Hopefully it’s about 90 days and we can get an answer,” said Snell, who was chosen to attend a SOAR Leadership Academy in June in Portland, Ore.

“We’ve had some cases where we’ve done them in a month,” said BET case manager Judith Withers. “It just depends on the case and it depends on how easily the client is able to impart information to us."

Bert Nash has added three full-time benefit specialist case managers since implementing the SOAR process in 2010. The SOAR process is one of several programs used by the BET team to help clients receive benefits. BET case managers work under the supervision of team leader Linda Davis and in collaboration with other members of the Bert Nash clinical and medical staff, including the Center’s homeless outreach team and all of the other case management teams. BET team members give a voice to clients’ stories. They become advocates, gathering information about a client’s history and writing a detailed narrative of the person’s past experiences and records.

“That medical summary is really the heart of the SOAR process,” Snell said. “We take all of their information and make a concise story that is factual and record-based, but also shows who the person is. A lot of times, when an examiner gets those records, it’s easy to stop seeing the person. This humanizes them. You’re weaving a personality into those facts. It’s an art, it really is.”

To create a narrative of the client’s personal history, the BET team will conduct exhaustive interviews with the client, as well as review extensive medical records and other relevant facts. Once the summary document is completed, it is forwarded to Disability Determination Services in Topeka, which will review the medical evidence.

“We are the client’s voice to DDS,” said BET case manager Withers. “We help tell the story of the client’s life in a way that it becomes more than just a name on a piece of paper.”

Building trust with the client is a critical component of the interview process, which can often involve the dredging up of painful memories.

“Trust is really important,” said BET team member Jefferies. “We’re talking about a person’s frailties, their most intimate secrets, their flaws, the trauma, those things they may have never divulged to anyone in their entire life. The interview process is intense. There can be a lot of tears.”

“Even the interview process can be therapeutic,” said BET team leader Davis.

A case involving the Bert Nash team was chosen as one of five in the country to be highlighted in a video promoting the SOAR program bit.ly/1rKKzZL. The case involved a homeless woman who had been living in shelters and on the streets for more than 10 years. She had filed for disability benefits numerous times in the past and was always denied, leaving her without mental health treatment, medication, and medical care, feeling desperate and without hope.

“She was socially isolated, had poor self-esteem from so many abusive relationships and consistent suicidal thoughts,” said BET case manager Jefferies, who wrote a letter sharing the client’s story, which was chosen to be featured in the promotional video. “She now has a home and food and money to sustain her existence and improve her mental and physical health. She feels human again.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which oversees SOAR, is using a production company to highlight the stories of people like the Bert Nash client and the providers who helped them complete the SOAR process. A film crew from Washington, D.C., came to Lawrence in April to interview the client and members of her Bert Nash support team.

“We’re just the instrument,” BET case manager Jefferies said. “The Center is the team, and we build that bridge from wherever the client is at in his or her life to receiving benefits. We’re kind of a helping hand.”

Sarah, the SOAR client who is featured in the video, is grateful for the helping hand she receives from her support team, which includes David Tucker of the Bert Nash homeless outreach team, case manager Sarah Miller, therapist Barb Preheim and psychosocial worker Rachel Feild.

“It makes me feel really good that I have all of these people, who are willing and caring, to help me out and not give up on me,” Sarah said. The Bert Nash BET team works with clients like Sarah, one at a time, focusing all their time and attention on a specific case. When the call comes that a client has been approved to receive disability benefits, there’s no better feeling.

“My first client was chronically homeless,” BET case manager Snell said. “When I called him to tell him he had been approved he immediately started crying and telling me that we saved his life. The fact he knew he would have safe shelter, that he could get food, that he had money to pay for his treatment, he said I’m going to dedicate myself to my recovery. He did. I see him in the hallway now and he always smiles. Just the fact someone doesn’t have to worry about where they’re going to sleep that night and they can start working on healing, it’s amazing.”