I find that when a person is filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS, an important component which is often overlooked is the supportive spouse. I often get calls concerning various aspects of the Disability Retirement process — not from the applicant, but from the spouse. And, indeed, this is natural, because often the medical condition itself is serious enough that the applicant is unable to “handle” or “deal with” the complexities of the process itself. It becomes further complicated when the medical condition which is suffered is a psychiatric condition — severe Major Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, suicidal ideations, etc.
However, whether it is psychiatric or physical, a supportive spouse — or “significant other” — is often very, very important to the success of the entire process. Obviously, as an attorney who represents “the Client“, I must be careful that there is never a conflict between the Applicant (my client) and “the spouse”, but that is rare. In almost all cases, I find that the spouse is looking after the best interest of my client, and I am happy to talk to and update the spouse on any and all issues surrounding a FERS Disability Retirement case, because I know that he/she is looking after the best interests of my client, just as I want to.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Federal Disability Retirement Attorney
Filed under: Mental/Nervous Condition, OPM Disability Actors - The Others | Tagged: accommodating mental psychiatric conditions, all for the best interest of the opm disability applicant, anxiety & panic attack in the Postal Service, anxiety and depression, anxiety and depression among postal workers, conflict of interest between the opm disability applicant and spouse, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, disabling depression, disabling mental nervous conditions, early out for rehab federal workers, early retirement for disabled postal employees, fdr law firm, federal attorney for disability retirement, federal disability retirement impacts the whole family, federal employee disability, federal employee disability benefits, federal employees with personality disorder suicide risk, federal retirement medical benefit, federal workers with panic attacks, FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement Blog, fers disability and suicidal behavior, fers disability retirement guide, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), how family partners can help a federal disability claim, lupus federal employee disability, medical retirement and usps, mental condition in OPM disability, mental or nervous disabling conditions, opm disability and the support from family and friends, owcp stress cases and federal agencies, panic attacks and federal disability retirement, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among fed workers, postal buyout versus usps disability retirement, ptsd disability retirement opm, retiring from post office on medical disability, spouse support is also important in opm disability retirement, suicidal ideations and federal employee disability retirement, supportive "significant others" can also help an opm disability claim, the complexity of the fers disability process, the disabled federal employee and his/her family, the federal disability applicant and the spouse, the spouse's role in opm disability retirement, us postal employees with depression, usps disability employees, usps rehab employees, voluntary early retirement for ill or injured usps workers, when the opm applicant can't handle the disability paperwork | 1 Comment »
OPM Disability Retirement 
Federal & Postal Service Disability Retirement: Personal v. Objective
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits is a personal matter. It is personal precisely because it is considered as an admission of a disability; it goes to the heart of what a person does in life — one’s livelihood, one’s means of support; and it goes to the perception in our society of the “worth” of an individual — financial worth, productive worth, worth in terms of the ability to support a family, and worth in terms of one’s contribution to society. Because it is so personal, it is difficult to “objectively” assess and evaluate a disability retirement claim, by the individual who is thinking about filing for such a benefit.
That is often why it is important to have an attorney represent an individual who is considering filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. Often, when I am hired at the second or third Stage of the process, I read the initial submissions of the client, and find that the “personal” has indeed overtaken the “objective”, precisely because the very subject of the disability retirement process — the applicant — had to undertake the very personal process himself/herself. Such personal subjectivity cannot see beyond the very personal nature of the medical condition, and when that happens, it is almost too personal for the OPM representative to make an objective assessment of the case.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors - The Applicant, OPM Disability Actors - The Attorney, OPM Disability Process - 1st Stage: OPM Disability Application, The Job of a Federal Disability Attorney | Tagged: a rational approach to opm disability retirement, an emotional vs. reasoned personal account of disability, an objective evaluation of your opm disability claim, attorney federal disability, blogs owcp and opm disability issues, civil service disability retirement, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, describing a medical tragedy without too much emotionalism, disability retirement in the post office, emotional comments won't always help to get opm application approved, federal civil service disability, federal employee and its acceptance of being disabled, federal employee disability, federal employee disability benefits, federal employee medical retirement, FERS disability retirement, FERS medical retirement, fighting feelings of worthlessness during the opm disability application, filing for usps disability, focusing on medical substantive issues not emotional problems, getting rid of emotional baggage during fers disability application, helping the opm disability specialist to evaluate your claim objectively, helping the opm representative to assess your disability claim, how to get approved for federal employee disability benefits, keeping emotions under control will help an opm disability applicant, keeping your tone cool and rational during application, Maintaining an Objective Perspective in a Disability Case, making rational arguments along with sound medical evidence, no work available for injured postal workers, not getting too personal during the applicant's statement of disability, nrp and defending injured postal workers, OPM disability retirement, OPM objective methodology, owcp disability retirement really is usually meant "opm disability retirement", postal service disability retirement, presenting a personal disability matter objectively, problems with personal disability retirement statements in opm application, rational perspective into the fed workers' medical condition, story of human tragedy, taking lwop for owcp medical condition, the fine balance between rational and emotional factors, the human side of a disability story, top federal disability retirement attorney, us post office disability attorney, usps rehab employees, value of a human being not defined by disabilities, when personal emotions overtake rational thoughts during application process, when the opm applicant can't handle the disability paperwork, why it can be difficult for the opm disability applicant to prove his claim | Leave a comment »