Obtaining SSDI is a difficult and complex process. Two out of every three applicants are initially denied - and they have a story to tell.
This is a true story as told to Allsup.
Morristown, Tennessee - David Vaughn knows the importance of having faith. At 57, he’s lived it for most of his adult life. A United Methodist 
minister for 30 years, he was accustomed to serving as the leader of his 500-member congregation at Trinity United Methodist Church in a mountain town 45 miles from Knoxville. It was a rewarding career until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1998. Now he’s focused on retirement, and he thanks Allsup for helping make it possible.
Parkinson’s disease has wide recognition with the public because it affects former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, actor Michael J. Fox and one million other Americans. Doctors are unable to predict or prevent the disorder. It impairs the body’s motor system by reducing the amount of dopamine producing brain cells. Dopamine is a chemical messenger responsible for transmitting signals via nerve cells or neurons within the brain. About 80 percent of the cells are damaged, dead or degenerated when Parkinson’s is diagnosed.
The loss of dopamine causes these cells to misfire and leaves a person with little or no control of their movements. There are four primary symptoms of Parkinson’s and Mr. Vaughn’s form is bradykinesia, or slowness of movement. Some medications are able to bring relief from the symptoms, but no drug has yet been developed to stop the progression of the disease.
For Mr. Vaughn, his diagnosis at age 49 confirmed his fears. “My family noticed the symptoms first. My wife, Brenda, saw that I was not moving the right side of my body, and I was less animated while preaching,” Vaughn said. “One day when I looked in the mirror I noticed my face lacked facial expression. I saw the difference when I shampooed my hair; I could move my left hand, but not my right at the same time.”
Some people brush off these signs as part of the aging process, but his wife and two grown children convinced him to seek help. When Mr. Vaughn’s doctor ran an initial series of tests, the best determination was that he had a stroke. After seven weeks of physical therapy, followed by a second series of more therapy, there was no improvement so Mr. Vaughn sought a second opinion. That’s when they discovered it was Parkinson’s.
“Knowing what I had was helpful, and I was prescribed various medications, but some had side effects. It took awhile to regulate and get it under control,” Vaughn remarked. “It is a progressive and incurable disease, but you can maintain a status quo before it gets worse.”
Mr. Vaughn did find a balance by making some adjustments and enlisting the help and support of others. It worked until the disease left him with few choices in late 2004.
“The bradykinesia affected my work so I tried to hide it. I realized later that I simply did not want to admit it,” Mr. Vaughn said, recalling how he needed help to stand or sit, and how the volume on his microphone had to be constantly adjusted.
“I made my administrative assistant aware of it, and I took steps to limit the number of mistakes I was making. But I was still missing meetings that I would forget about and that bothered me because punctuality was one of my strengths. I began carrying a recorder in my pocket to help remember conversations. But a few times when something was said in confidence, I would forget it several weeks later. I realized then I had to tell people what was happening.”
After resigning from the church, Mr. Vaughn took the necessary steps to secure his Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The all-important church pension accounted for 70 percent of his previous income for the rest of his life, with SSDI being part of the pension equation. But a kink in the system posed a threat to his pension.
Mr. Vaughn was entitled to his disability benefits after paying FICA taxes for years. His pension officer recommended he call Allsup, an Illinois disability advocacy company that has helped more than 100,000 people obtain over $1.4 million in SSDI and Medicare benefits since 1984. It took several months for his first application to be denied. While not unusual, the manner in how it happened was odd at best.
“This was a very difficult period for me. It was extremely frustrating,” Mr. Vaughn said. “I was experiencing depression due to the Parkinson’s, and for most people the medication removes the depression. With the ministry, I set my own schedule and was always a workaholic. Not being able to preach or have a congregation anymore was very difficult. By retiring and applying for SSDI, I went from being very busy to doing nothing. For the first time in 30 years, I wasn’t in control. Someone else was.”
In this case, that someone was an examiner with the Social Security Administration. Two of every three people who apply for SSDI benefits are initially rejected for a number of reasons, and the majority typically waits six months before learning the news. Mr. Vaughn’s wait was much longer, and it was beginning to threaten the deadline for meeting his church’s pension plan.
“David’s case had to be reviewed and approved before November 2006 or his church pension would have been permanently reduced,” said April O’Dell, the Allsup claimant representative in charge of his case at reconsideration time. “The previous examiner dragged their feet before making the unfavorable ruling, so David was frustrated with the process. He was running out of time, so we pulled together all of the information and submitted it for reconsideration this past April. In July, the new examiner ruled in his favor.”
“I think April was more angry than I was at how slow the first examiner was at issuing a decision,” Mr. Vaughn recalled. “She understood my needs for disability and made the process easier. We were able to get this done through the mail and by telephone.”
Mr. Vaughn continues to adapt to the challenges of his disease, but he’s not sitting around idle. He’s involved with the Parkinson’s Action Network (PAN), a leading national advocacy voice of the Parkinson’s community. Although it is not as time consuming as it was initially, Mr. Vaughn still participates in the Lakeway area Parkinson’s support group he originated in Morristown in 2001. When able, he occasionally volunteers his services as a department chaplain with the Morristown Police Department.
“Keeping active helps me deal with Parkinson’s,” Vaughn said. “My psychologist said I needed a hobby or activity so volunteering was something natural for me. Earlier this year, I discovered I had some talent for pencil drawing. Most Parkinson’s patients have a problem sleeping, so when I wake up around 2:30 in the morning and can’t sleep, I’ll do the pencil art.”