VA Compensation for Delirium — Everything You Need To Know
Veterans are susceptible to delirium and other cognitive conditions as a result of a severe lack of sleep or traumatic, high-stress events in the military. If you are a current or former service member who now suffers from delirium, you may be eligible for VA disability benefits.
Recovering delirium veterans’ benefits is difficult and denials are common. A VA disability advocate can help you appeal the denial and get you the benefits you need. Call for a free case evaluation today: (888) 373-4722.
A VA Disability Advocate Can Help You Collect VA Disability Benefits for Delirium
If the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) denied your claim for delirium veterans’ benefits, an advocate can build a compelling appeal.
Delirium involves severe confusion, with similar symptoms to a patient with Alzheimer’s or dementia. While those conditions are chronic, leading to the slow deterioration of a person’s mental faculties over time, episodes of delirium can come on all at once, lasting for a few hours to a few days.
When delirium occurs in response to a traumatic or high-stress event, a person can have episodes that are infrequent, intermittent or daily, depending on the severity of the condition.
Symptoms that often lead to a diagnosis of delirium include:
- Difficulty focusing
- Grogginess or mental fog—a constant feeling of having just woken up and still being half-asleep
- Mumbling or unintelligible speech
- Not recognizing one’s whereabouts
- Getting worked up for no reason
- Delusions—seeing, hearing or believing things that are not real
For a free case evaluation, call at (888) 373-4722.
Our Advocacy Group Will Appeal for Your Delirium Veterans Benefits
A veterans’ disability advocate knows how to gather evidence and build a strong VA disability appeal for delirium on your behalf.
To receive approval, your VA disability appeal for delirium needs to prove three things:
- You have a diagnosis of delirium.
- You experienced a traumatic event during your military service or the in-service start of your symptoms.
- Your condition is connected to that event in your military service.
A Valid Diagnosis
The first thing an advocate has to show is that you have a valid diagnosis of delirium. After an advocate takes your case, they can review your VA Claim file and other supporting documentation, evaluating it using the framework of VA’s requirements.
VA’s criteria can be strict, so an advocate can help you produce what you need for your appeal to be compelling.
A Traumatic In-Service Event or In-Service Start to Your Symptoms
You must have experienced some sort of traumatic event or symptom onset during your military service.
A Nexus Between Your Diagnosis and the In-Service Event
The third part of a successful VA appeal is a nexus between your diagnosis of delirium and a specific event/onset from your military service.
An advocate can determine what evidence is missing from your case and help you to build a strong appeal for benefits. To start the process today with a free VA disability consultation, call (888) 373-4722.
A VA Disability Advocate Will Fight for the VA Disability Compensation You Deserve
When VA approves your disability claim or appeal for delirium, it assigns you a rating. This is a number between 0 and 100%. Higher numbers signify more severe and disabling conditions, while lower numbers signify less severe and disabling conditions.
The criteria VA uses to determine your disability rating for delirium are:
- 100% rating: “Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name.”
- 70% rating: “Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a work-like setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.”
- 50% rating: “Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.”
- 30% rating: “Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events).”
- 10% rating: “Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms controlled by continuous medication.”
- 0% rating: “A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.”
The higher your VA disability rating, the more you can collect in monthly compensation. Delirium and other cognitive disorders are eligible for one of the six ratings above. The monthly disability compensation levels (for a single veteran with no dependents for these ratings are:
- 0% disability rating: $0 per month
- 10% disability rating: $142.29 per month
- 30% disability rating: $435.69 per month
- 50% disability rating: $893.43 per month
- 70% disability rating: $1,426.17 per month
- 100% disability rating: $3,106.04 per month
Call today for veterans disability help: (888) 373-4722.
