How to Prepare for Your Psychological Consultative Evaluation

What should you expect from your Social Security Consultative Evaluation? Is the doctor, the psychologist, mainly focused on what you have to say? Or is the doctor focused on other things like how you're dressed? Is your hair brushed? Were you late for the appointment? Hi, I'm Jonathan Ginsberg. I'm a Social Security Disability Attorney representing claimants nationwide. And I review these psychological evaluations constantly because in almost every case, Social Security sends my clients out for a consultative evaluation with a psychologist. The purpose of which is to determine whether or not my client has mental health impairments that would prevent that person from working. Now, in a recent case, I was looking at the psychological evaluation. It occurred to me that my clients probably don't realize that when they go for a visit with a psychologist, this one-time visit for a consultative, the doctor is looking, not just listening to what the person has to say, but also observing that person's behavior generally. So I'm going to read you some of the lines from this psychological report for one of my recent cases. Ms. So-and-so is a divorced white female. She arrived promptly for the scheduled evaluation and was driven by her mother, who acted as a collateral informant. In other words, the mom was there to help give information. The claimant was dressed casually and demonstrated adequate grooming. She appeared her stated chronological age and demonstrated no apparent motor abnormalities. Rapport was easily established and she possessed adequate social skills. So this is before the psychologist gets into any testing. She's giving an overview. She's telling the judge that this person came in, appeared to be fairly normal. Eye contact was established. Rapport was established. There was nothing obvious to suggest there were problems, as opposed to someone who clearly is disturbed. Their eyes are darting about. They can't make eye contact. They're spouting nonsense from the get-go. But this is a person who certainly appeared normal, but this is going in the report. The claimant was oriented as to person, place, time, and situation. Thought content was unremarkable and thought process was logical and goal-directed. She was attentive to interview questions and was able to concentrate long enough to complete a three-stage command. Again, think about this in terms of work capacity. These are factors that would allow somebody to perform adequately in a work capacity. She was able to sustain conversation and answer interview questions without simplification or repetition. The claimant demonstrated a normal range and intensity of affect. Affect was predominantly anxious. So again, this is describing a person who at the outset does not seem to be significantly damaged to the point where he or she, in this case a she, would not be able to work. But you see that the doctor, the psychologist, is not just reporting on information gathered, but is making an overall observation about how the person appears and how he or she presents himself. That goes on and will be part of the final report. Now, what the doctor then goes on to do is to ask the client to participate in a number of different types of tests. Sometimes these tests can be working with blocks. They can be memorization tests where the doctor will give you a list of four items and ask you to repeat them 10 minutes later. They'll ask you to count backwards by sevens from 100 or to name the last four presidents. These are just to get an idea of how tuned in, connected you are to the real world. What psychologists are especially looking for are people who are exaggerating or trying to answer a question the way they think they should answer it so they will appear to be disabled. There's a lot of these different testing techniques that are designed to identify that. So you should never go in there trying to demonstrate that you have a problem. Just tell the truth and the testing will demonstrate if you have a problem or not. One of the things that the psychologist said in this case was the claimant was considered to be a valid historian for daily activities, physical and psychological conditions. However, variability in her testing performance suggests some variation in her effort. Sometimes that can be even stronger where there was inconsistencies in different types of testing where, for example, a person says, I have terrible memory but part of the testing that person remembered something after 10 minutes but then claimed they could not remember what they ate for breakfast or they couldn't remember the last four presidents or something to that effect. So depending on how the testing demonstrates how significantly off a person is with different types of testing, the psychologist will make a conclusion about whether the person is exaggerating or malingering or test results are valid. So obviously, you're not going to fool the psychologist is what it boils down to. So don't try to be somebody you're not. Don't try to over-exaggerate. Just tell the truth. Try your best on these tests. If you give good effort, that will be shown. I will tell you after looking at a number of psychological testing manuals that these tests are designed. There's different types of tests that the psychologist will do in social security exams, but they are designed to help the doctor identify when somebody is exaggerating or malingering or not telling the truth. You're not going to fool the test. You're not going to fool the doctor. You want to tell the truth. In this case, the doctor's conclusions were my client had somewhat mild limitations and would have some issues with some aspects with complex job instructions or interaction with the general public, but her interaction with coworkers and supervisors was adequate. She was adequate for simple instructions and so forth. This is not a particularly great case, but I use this as an example to show that psychologists are using these tests to try to figure out not just what you're saying, but how you say it. Don't try to fool them. Don't try to be somebody you're not. I hope you found this helpful. If you did, please give it a thumbs up on YouTube, like us on Facebook, subscribe to our channel. If you've not already done so, please download my free Secrets to Winning Social Security Disability Survival Kit, which you can get from my website. If you have any questions or thoughts about future videos, please reach out to me. Happy to try to accommodate you any way I can. This is Jonathan Ginsburg wishing you well. Thank you. Hi, this is Jonathan Ginsburg, and I hope you found this video helpful. If you'd like to know more about how to win your social security disability case, I'd like to invite you to download my Secrets to Getting Approved Early Survival Kit that I created just for people like you. Currently, I'm making this survival kit available at no cost, and I encourage you to grab your copy now. Some of the topics I cover include, how do I know if I have a case? Is it the right time for me to file my claim? Nine common mistakes that can doom your case. The three must-have arguments you use to win your case, and a topic that every disability claimant wants to know, how to avoid trick questions from the judge. If you or a loved one need to win social security disability benefits, you'll find the survival kit essential reading. Download your survival kit right now, and at no cost. Just visit ssdanswers.com backslash survival and sign up. It's that easy. Please act now, and as always, I wish you the best.