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How does an HP do a Mental Status Examination?

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7 years 1 month ago #180929 by Hippyginger
Replied by Hippyginger on topic How does an HP do a Mental Status Examination?

Gordon wrote: Mary

You are not required to complete any activity without pain, however, any pain that limits your ability to complete the activity should be considered and in particular for Moving Around, if you are in severe pain but still able to walk then the distance should be discounted as you should not be considered as walking to a necessary standard.

Gordon


Still trying to get the appropriate information in my MR letter, with hubby's help. But as we were going through the mountain of paperwork I seem to have accumulated during this process, I happened to re-read, (and not for the first time :) the PIP Information booklet that comes with the PIP2 forms and found something I've been able to use! Under Q14 Moving around, it tells you that it's about your ability to physically move around etc. but the last sentence is what could, (or not), prove really helpful for me because it says, 'Tell us how long it takes, how well or often you complete this activity and if it causes PAIN, breathlessness, tiredness or dizziness' Well, I did that on my PIP2 paperwork!

Hoping that by giving that sentence as part of my MR request, it may help my cause because I'm not only in pain for every step but also suffer chronic fatigue as a stand alone condition in addition to that also being part of my Fibromyalgia and Sjogren's disease! Fingers crossed......or they would be if it wasn't for the arthritis :unsure:

It's also still a mystery to me how the assessor could have stated that I can walk 20m but no more than 50m when he didn't even see me walk/hobble for the 15m he claims it was? Just makes my usual daily headache worse pondering on that one. I have also added in your bit Gordon about if I'm in severe pain but still able to walk, that the distance should be discounted as I should not be considered as walking to a necessary standard. Every little helps......hopefully :S
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7 years 1 month ago #181162 by Hippyginger
Replied by Hippyginger on topic How does an HP do a Mental Status Examination?
Well this is it.....my fate is sealed....because my husband has now rung the DWP informing them that I wish to have a Mandatory Reconsideration thing and he checked the address while he was on the phone. He also told them that he was putting a letter requesting the MR today, which he's now done.. Heaven help us.

It's taken almost 2 weeks to formulate the letter in what we hope is an acceptable form and using the template from your wonderful site along with loads of helpful information so now all we can do is wait.

My husband was a great help doing the letter because he was beside me throughout the assessment albeit the HP made no mention of that fact or that he was even in the same building as me! Anyway, he did the letter on my behalf having been very clear that this is what he was doing from the offset and then we've both signed it. I'd learnt from the B&W resources and forum that it's best not to get too bogged down in detail whilst also listing the descriptors you agree with and those you dispute so this is what we've tried to do. Also made sure we had that sort of disclaimer at the end of the letter about how we would not stop this request by phone etc. Can't remember the exact words I'm afraid but know they're correct in the letter because I'd printed it off from here, so thank you all so much for the help.

We can only hope that the person doing the MR is an actual human being with sense of fairness because the HP report and that of the Decision Maker are about 85% fiction and we wondered if we'd even been at the same assessment :unsure: But either way, we're prepared to have to go to appeal. I know I shall be on tenterhooks every time the landline phone rings from Monday onwards until we hear if they're sticking to their original decision, which I know is more usually the case.

Have to confess to still being a tad confused, (no surprise for me), but do the DWP ring you with their decision/no change AND send a letter? I'm pretty useless on the phone, so only hope that if/when they do ring that he's not out doing our shopping or something. I wish that they had access to the recording of my phone call to request a PIP2 at the start of this because I felt sorry for the poor chap who must've got cheesed off repeating things over and over to me and having to speak slowly so I had some chance of understanding his questions :unsure: That would have helped my case for sure :)

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7 years 1 month ago #181179 by slugsta
I would be surprised if anyone rings you at all, the majority of decisions are notified in writing (and you will need the written decision if/when you appeal).

Nothing on this board constitutes legal advice - always consult a professional about specific problems

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7 years 1 month ago #181217 by Hippyginger
Replied by Hippyginger on topic How does an HP do a Mental Status Examination?
Phew! That's a relief. I was dreading a phone call and my husband not being in. I know he is my carer but we're not joined at the hip, thankfully ;) And I do enjoy a bit of me time when he does have to go out and I suspect I'm not alone in that :) We each need a bit of space now and then which I suspect is the same for anybody who has their other half as their carer.

However, we have now worked out how to just switch the answerphone on and don't need to record our own message which is just aswell because nobody would understand me on it these days.

Thanks so much Mrs. H. This site is truly invaluable and I've lost count of the number of folk I've directed towards it for help with various things. Thank you.

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7 years 1 month ago #181460 by Hippyginger
Replied by Hippyginger on topic How does an HP do a Mental Status Examination?
Well blow me down with a feather! DWP rang this very morning! It was mid-morning and I was having another of my unexpected snoozes at the time, but they rang because my husband rang them earlier once we realized that we were actually 2 pages short in my copy of the assessor's report and only realized because of where it says what page number it is of however many make the full set. BUT......we wouldn't have realized if I hadn't read something on another thread on this wonderful site where a poster said that the name of the assessor on the front of the report was different from the name on the back page! I had no back page when I looked at mine :silly:

I was half with it when my husband rang this morning and he was told that the chap would request another complete copy to be sent to me but explained that the last 2 pages used to be what was on page 4 and is for the assessors notes so didn't know if I would be allowed to have a copy of those! My husband explained that since we'd requested the report and have every right to do so, we'd have expected a complete copy, especially as those 'notes' could hold vital information for our MR which has already been lodged, but may be useful, (or not), when we have to go to appeal.

Anyway, this phone call from them to us, was to apologize that for some reason the last 2 pages had missed being copied and a copy would be in the post. Mind you, my husband told me that when the chap told him he was from the DWP, he'd thought it would be to discuss my MR request which they would have received yesterday and he thought he was going to have to wake me up, which never bodes well for the old brain cells which don't seem to wake up when the rest of my body does :P . So, he was quite relieved when it wasn't about that :lol:

And the saga goes on :angry:
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