In a previous video, I talked about the three things you have to prove in your VA disability claim. Now the first of those three things is that you have to prove you have a disability right now. This is what the VA calls a current disability. So in this video, I want to expand on that a little bit and talk about what you need to do to prove you have a current disability.
The short answer is you’re going to need competent evidence that you’re currently experiencing some type of injury or illness or disease. Most of the time, this is going to require medical evidence. And unless you went to medical school, the VA is not going to consider you competent enough to diagnose yourself with a specific medical condition. You’ll need to be able to point to somewhere in your medical records or in an opinion from a doctor that says you have the disability that you say you have.
And that’s what the VA means by competent. So if you have something that you believe is a disability, but don’t have the medical evidence to prove it, you have a couple of options. The first thing you can do is make an appointment with your doctor, go in and see them. Describe the symptoms you’re experiencing and see if he or she will diagnose you. If you don’t have a doctor, or if you don’t have insurance, you can roll in VA healthcare. In fact, if you don’t have insurance, you should enroll in VA healthcare as an aside. Once you’re in the VA system, you can see your VA primary care provider about that issue.
Now, if, if neither of those two things is an option, there’s, there’s still another way. And it goes back to this idea of competence. Just because you are probably not competent enough to diagnose yourself, doesn’t mean you’re incompetent in all respects. You are perfectly competent to describe those things that don’t require specialized training. For example, if it’s a TBI situation, you are perfectly competent to describe your symptoms such as your persistent headaches. You are also perfectly competent to describe the situations around what you believe caused your injury or your illness.
When you submit your claim to the VA, you can provide a lay statement where you described these symptoms, describe the injury or the event or the illness that you believe caused those symptoms. Now, the VA has to consider those statements and you’ll likely trigger the VA’s obligation to assist you by providing you a medical examination.
So those are the things you can do to prove you have a current disability. If you’re struggling with the VA and you’d like some help, give me a call or a text, and I’ll see if I can help you out. Links to contact me are in the description below this video.