Q&A

Q&A: SOAR advocate Ree Cheers to stand up for ‘Contributor’ vendors

BY HANNAH HERNER

The same people who have disabilities that prevent them from working may also have trouble navigating the federal programs that are meant to provide them relief. That’s where a SOAR advocate comes in.

SSI/SSDI Outreach, Access and Recovery, is a national program funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Since 2006, the program has served those who are homeless or have housing precarity, and “mental illness, medical impairment, and/or a co-occurring substance use disorder.”

The goal is to expedite the process, by providing complete applications, and keeping contact consistent between the clients and the federal agencies. Clients aren’t charged anything for this service.

Both Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance are administered by the Social Security Administration, and offer monthly benefits to those who cannot hold a traditional job. While both require the same strict medical criteria, with SSDI you have to have worked enough full time and paid enough into social security — this typically means you’ve worked full time five out of the last 10 years. SSI does not look at work history, but rather your financial need combined with medical needs.

We sat down with The Contributor’s newly-hired SOAR manager, Ree Cheers, to hear about the challenges and triumphs of the program.

What are some of the challenges with getting SSI/SSDI?

Sometimes you have individuals that have a diagnosis of mental illness, and they can't remember how many medical facilities they've been admitted in. So me as an advocate, I have to be my own investigator, and find out how many admissions have they had in Tennessee, because sometimes they can't remember the hospitals, or they may say [for example] ‘well I was in the state of New York.’ So I have to start digging in New York. When you go against the examiners at the SSI office, they need to have concrete information from me, that John Doe was seen at New York mental health.

As a SOAR advocate you have to make sure you get every pertinent piece of information when you do your screening from your individual to ensure that the information is correct.

It's so important for The Contributor to have an advocate that works for individuals that need that funding.

So what you’re trying to do is put together a case that a person is not able to work?

Absolutely, you hit it right on target. You're painting a picture of what caused them to be mentally ill, what caused them to go into substance abuse. But not only that, you have to prove, as an advocate, that the drugs and alcohol are not what’s causing them to have a psychosis or schizophrenia diagnosis [for example]. So when that report is written, it has to be a foundation of a lot of writing and a medical summary report stating that mental illness is keeping them from being in housing, the mental illness is keeping them from keeping a sufficient position at some type of employer.

It could be some type of brain injury that a doctor didn't find, it could be some type of traumatic issue that happened as a child, you know from being a young lady being molested or some type of abuse in the home. There's all kinds of things that can trigger a person to go into a mental state of mind that can traumatize them for years to come.

Do you see SSI and SSDI being over-utilized or under-utilized?

I see it being under-utilized. A lot of people are lost and don't have the advocates to educate them on what it means. A lot of those programs are there to help individuals but it's cost of care, you have to get an attorney, you have to do this. There's no fee for SOAR. A lot of people are just not educated on what it's for.

Wouldn’t it be better if there was a world where a person could navigate the system without help?

You'll have that five percent that's able to just get out and go apply for the resources. But you know what's going to happen? They're going to get denied.

Eighty percent of individuals that need the program will go apply, but they always get denied because they are providing the wrong information. They're marking the wrong answers, thinking that that's the right answer. And that's where SOAR comes in.

You mentioned that sometimes when people put in an application they put the wrong answers — are they more so overestimating or underestimating their abilities?

I would say both. They could be asking you a question regarding the person that you're applying for, but you're putting the information based on what you see and not putting what the physician states, because you have to understand, if it's not documented it's not done.

The first question I ask individuals or family members is, when was the last time you applied and why were you denied? And then they gave up. They always give up. They never go back and follow up on their applications. So, I mean, it's like a domino effect. The whole application process has a domino effect.

Was there something in particular that made you go into this field?

I've been in the populations of communities that didn't have. I've been around family members that were disabled. I have been around individuals that have autism and down syndrome. And growing up not knowing what that was, even in high school, you know, special education individuals that I know that was disabled. To see them be in pain and hurt and families not have the resources was painful to witness. So once I became an adult and went to school and graduated, I knew that I had to be that voice to provide the services and see what I can get my hands into to provide hope for the hopeless.

When you have that lived experience and that personal experience, from childhood all the way around you, you don't want to see no one suffer as an adult.

What keeps you from being burned out after 25 years in this field?

What keeps me from being burned out is my background. My first love is ministry. I'm an ordained minister. And I am here to serve. I have to always remember that it is not the income of my mission, it's the outcome of the individual that I serve. I've been doing this for over 25 years and it's always my thought process, because you never know when it could be you.