The rigors of military service can lead servicemembers to develop various mental health issues, such as depression. Depression symptoms resulting from one’s experiences in the military can have a debilitating effect on one’s life, making it more challenging to maintain relationships or hold down steady employment. However, service-connected depression may entitle a veteran to financial benefits and services from the VA.
Understanding Depression as a Service-Connected Condition
The VA recognizes depression as several specific mental health conditions, including persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), major depressive disorder, and unspecified depressive disorder. A veteran’s depression may entitle them to an award of disability benefits from the VA when the condition affects their mind or body, and their depression has a “service connection,” or in other words, the veteran developed depression due to their military service. A veteran may prove a service connection for their depression by identifying one or more events that occurred during their service that could trigger mental health conditions, such as combat conditions, the deaths of fellow servicemembers, extended overseas deployments, or sexual harassment or assault.
A veteran will need to submit medical records to establish a formal diagnosis of depression and other medical documents and service records to prove a service connection to entitle the veteran to VA disability benefits.
The VA’s Rating Formula for Mental Disorders
The VA determines disability benefits for mental disorders like depression based on the disability rating for a veteran’s condition. The VA rates mental disorders at zero, ten, 30, 50, 70, and 100 percent disability ratings, depending on the severity of the veteran’s condition. Criteria for these ratings include:
- Zero percent: Veteran has a formal diagnosis, but symptoms do not interfere with occupational or social functions or do not require continuous medication.
- Ten percent: Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms that decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks during periods of significant stress. Alternatively, continuous medication can control symptoms.
- 30 percent: Occupational and social impairment with occasional decreases in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks due to depressed mood, chronic sleep impairment, or mild memory loss (forgetting names, directions, or recent events).
- 50 percent: Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability or productivity due to symptoms like flattened affect, circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech, difficulty in understanding complex commands, impairment of short- and long-term memory, impaired judgment, impaired abstract thinking, disturbances to motivation or mood, and difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.
- 70 percent: Occupational and social impairment with deficiencies in most areas due to symptoms such as suicidal ideation, intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant speech, near-continuous depression affecting the ability to function independently or effectively, spatial disorientation, neglect of personal appearance and hygiene, difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances, or inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.
- 100 percent: Total occupational and social impairment due to gross impairment in thought processes or communication, grossly inappropriate behavior, persistent danger of hurting self or others, intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living, disorientation to time or place, or memory loss of own name or names of close relatives.
How Veterans Can Strengthen Their Disability Benefits Claims
Veterans can bolster their disability claims for service-connected depression by following best practices such as:
- Obtaining comprehensive medical records and consistent mental health evaluations
- Securing lay statements from family, friends, and co-workers
- Having a treating mental health provider draft a nexus letter to establish a service connection for depression
- Attending the compensation and pension exam if requested by the VA
Finally, veterans who have their claims denied on initial review can turn to a VA disability attorney to pursue further review of their claims.
Contact a VA Disability Benefits Lawyer Today
When you suffer from depression caused by your military service, you may qualify for VA disability benefits if you experience disabling symptoms. Contact Veterans Law Attorneys today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a VA disability attorney to learn more about how the VA handles disability claims involving depression.
