Lots of young people on disability?

Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN · May 17, 2011

It is a very valid point that sometimes disability is not easy to see with the naked eye. It is very easy to make assumptions, and I try really hard not to.

On the other hand, when I show up for work and pull my shift with a migraine, and I'm treating people with migraines, it does make me wonder...

imintrouble, BSN, RN · May 17, 2011

Most of the seekers in the hospital are on disability. Just a fact. Sorry to offend those of you who are opposed to "making" judgements.

The rest of us can't afford a hospital admission for pain. We can't afford the bill.

wooh, BSN, RN · May 17, 2011

The problem is, if you make the system harder to abuse, it becomes harder for the people that NEED the help.

Which is what REALLY frustrates me, seeing people who need the help having to struggle to get it while others are blatantly gaming the system.

Fribblet · May 17, 2011

The problem is, if you make the system harder to abuse, it becomes harder for the people that NEED the help.
Which is what REALLY frustrates me, seeing people who need the help having to struggle to get it while others are blatantly gaming the system.

It's already hard for the people who need it to get it.

I'm convinced that the freeloaders who have it now are able to get it so easily because they've been working the system for a long time and just know how it works.

When you make a living off skeezing, it's much easier to skeez. People who have worked their entire life and can't walk across the room without getting severely winded are told by the government they're not disabled enough. Meanwhile some 20 year old who slipped and fell in Kroger and now has "back pain" is living on medicaid, food stamps, wic, and disability, and is yelling at me because she has to wait more than 20 minutes to get placed in a room so she can get a (at no cost to her!) $1000 pregnancy test and a script for tylenol #3. (All the while jumping up out of her seat, flailing her arms, and walking briskly up and down the waiting room. Back pain? Seriously?)

The government is seriously ******. And they want to run a universal plan? Pffft. That's going to be a disaster.

AngelicDarkness · May 17, 2011

Lately it seems all we do in our ER is see very young (like 19-30) unemployed, drug seekers who are "disabled" due to bi-polar or some chronic back/knee pain (that all xrays/CT show no evidence of). While there is no intention of working, these pts continue to have more and more children . I can't stand it! I actually get a rush if I triage a 20-something pt who DOESN'T have pinpoint pupils. Or falling asleep mid-sentence in my triage chair. Our docs have become tramadol Pez dispensers because they are so sick of it!

Funny.... one of my close friends had severe back pain and had to become unemployed from calling in "sick" too many times from the pain. She went to emerg and recieved no treatment. The MD even went so far as to say she was "faking it". She started to experiment with recreational drugs (Mj) to help the pain. Went on for about 6 months till she ended up in emerg again crying and doubled over in pain. A surgeon was on the floor and investigated. At 23 years of age, she just went in for a back surgery to correct her injury. Thank goodness someone took the time to take it seriously,

dance4life · May 17, 2011

I know a couple of people with Bipolar Disorder who treat it with medication and are actually quite capable of holding down very good jobs...my roommate and friend being one of them. Is it possible that some (not all) of the people on disability for this or similar issues are abusing the system when they really could control their disorders?
Side Note: Am just asking, I don't pretend to know what it is like to have this disorder.

There are two different forms of the disorder and so many different signs and symptoms. So many medications too. Hard disorder to treat. So many trials and errors for some. :uhoh3:

I for one have it, but I am still able to work. I have taken care of people on it. Let me just say that some of them cannot work, nor would you want them working in your communities, and some of them who are let back into the community are medicated so the look normal at that time and place.

I am not sure how someone can fake Bipolar Disorder on a Psychological Evaluation. As far as I know it is a long process and investigation if you can do anything for yourself. Anything after that I do not know the process.

Plus, how do you know someone's income when they go to the ER? I mean how do you know they are on Welfare, Foodstamps, and WIC? Does that show up on a Face Sheet? Just wondering...

Fribblet · May 17, 2011

There are two different forms of the disorder and so many different signs and symptoms. So many medications too. Hard disorder to treat. So many trials and errors for some.
I for one have it, but I am still able to work. I have taken care of people on it. Let me just say that some of them cannot work, nor would you want them working in your communities, and some of them who are let back into the community are medicated so the look normal at that time and place.
I am not sure how someone can fake Bipolar Disorder on a Psychological Evaluation. As far as I know it is a long process and investigation if you can do anything for yourself. Anything after that I do not know the process.
Plus, how do you know someone's income when they go to the ER? I mean how do you know they are on Welfare, Foodstamps, and WIC? Does that show up on a Face Sheet? Just wondering...

They are often more than happy to toss that information around. I'm telling you some of them are proud of it. Anyone who isn't milking the system doesn't advertise they're receiving aid. There's no reason to be ashamed of collecting government benefits if you need them.

In fact, part of what infuriates me the most, is the people skeezing the system and bleeding it so damn dry so that people who truly need the aid cannot get it.

wazeout · May 17, 2011

I feel so disheartened after reading the majority of opinions on this thread. First of all I can't believe some of the comments that are comming from a profession of educated people that are suppose to be versed in the arts of science which incorporates math, logic, reason and above all critical thinking, which should in all practical sense, keep you guessing.

Secondly, the practice of medicine is just that; the ability to learn by repetition the things we have learned thus far with a caveat of learning more than we have been taught, and using that combined knowledge to proceed.

Thirdly, although we are not practicing doctors, we are still educated people in the health profession that have been taught similarly, if not the same way, to understand the limits and capabilities of A&P along with the chemistry and outside enviromental causes that can afflict not only a single person, but a population. Florence Nightingale was a nurse that recognized the environmental causes of illness in the form of inadequate, and unsanitary procedures that caused more harm than help, because of microbial infections. Margrat Sanger, who was also a nurse, recognized environmental causes as well, except in the form of socially constructed ideas that were reeking havoc on the the lower socio-economic classes that were, and still are, the majority of our populated U.S. of America.

Finally, but definitely not the last word on this, our emotions are probably the most constant thing throughout our human development, which is why there are so many things written directly or indirectly concerning them, and why "civil" societies and professions shun them--the word stoic comes from a group of people that wanted to deny emotions, and the resistance were those that wanted to indulge in every sensation. They get in the way, sometimes, of doing our jobs or creating new ways of thinking. Our goal, as nurses, is to heal the body, which incorporates mind, body, and soul. As nurses, our job and duties are not to be judgemental, but rather to assess the circumstances that affect the health of our patients, and act accordingly.

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" Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is; the PEOPLE is never corrupted, but it is often deceived, and on such occasions does it seem to will what is bad." ( Rousseau: Social Contract)

kids · May 17, 2011

They are often more than happy to toss that information around. I'm telling you some of them are proud of it. Anyone who isn't milking the system doesn't advertise they're receiving aid. There's no reason to be ashamed of collecting government benefits if you need them.
In fact, part of what infuriates me the most, is the people skeezing the system and bleeding it so damn dry so that people who truly need the aid cannot get it.

No, there is no shame in recieving benefits for a legitimate disability. But when you get lumped with the "skeezes" it makes you feel like you should be ashamed.

I'll give you 6 months in an ER and see if you don't feel the same.
My husband is paralyzed, diabetic, deals with chronic pain and bladder infections...yet he is able to hold down a full-time job. Why? Because he takes pride in earning a living. Sure, there are some out there who need disability, but I find that the vast majority are just lazy, have a sense of entitlement, and are just taking advantage of the system. It makes me sick, too!

I've got well over 6 months in the ER and I don't feel the same.

I'm also wheelchair bound due to a spinal cord injury and also experience several comorbidities. I'm able to work for likely the same reason your husband is...I have the education and experience that makes my employer want to go above and beyond to accomidate my needs.

I don't work because I take pride in earning a living, I do it because after working as a RN for more than 20 years disability pays a piddly $1200 a month.

Your husband and I are the exception to the rule.

To hold either of us up as some sort of model of what a disabled person can do and declaring the "vast majority are just lazy, have a sense of entitlement, and are just taking advantage of the system" does a serious diservice to disabled people who can't.

Spritenurse1210, BSN, RN · May 17, 2011

I am not an er nurse but I see my share of free loaders who think we owe them something. I am sick of being ordered to wait on them hand and foot and not tell them what I think about their manipulative maladaptive patterns of behavior. I have see a little old lady with a decubitus the size of Texas whine less than some of these twenty- something Meth heads with a splinter in their finger. Such is life so I bite my tongue and keep doing my job. I really hate how our society has come to condone this. I was taught that pain is what a patient says it is but if the person is telling me they are having 10 out of 10 pain with a blood pressure of 70/38 and is falling asleep after everyother word, I can bet money the patient is to stoned to remember why they hit the call light in the first place. Therefore they can NOT possibly be having that much pain. MHO

bisacat · May 17, 2011

First of all thank you to Fribblet and CardinalRN who recognized that I was venting AND that I was referring to the VAST (sorry, but it's true) amount of drug addicts and freeloaders. We see a lot of them in our ER. If you don't in YOUR ER, know that you are lucky. We have frequent flyers. We live in a small beach town and it's interesting when the pt who claims he/she can hardly move (and, my Gawd, can't dare WORK for a living) is arrested in a bar brawl or seen body surfing.

I also noticed that not one person had anything to say about the example I gave of the woman who choose her cigs, beer, nails, etc over buying Motrin for her child. While that was just an example, we see that DAILY!

I think some of you missed my point or maybe I was unclear....I was referring to the seekers and the low lives. Many people are simply jerks and get labeled bipolar. I have a stepson who truly has the illness and it annoys me to hear how quick our society is to throw a diagnosis at someone and medicate them into oblivion. For the record, my stepson does NOT collect disability and works. I know all too well about chronic pain....my dad broke his back yrs ago and uses oxycontin AND percocet daily. He doesn't crush and snort them, or shoot them up. He doesn't walk around wasted, drooling on himself. He WORKS.

I am venting and I am sorry if you feel I am some horrible nurse. I came HERE to vent, to talk with other ER nurses. I love my job and my pts always like being cared for by me. But like another poster above said, when we drag ourselves to work with a migraine, it's annoying to take care of someone begging for her "fast push" of IV dilaudid (you know the one, she is allergic to all NSAIDs, forgot to follow up and was here 4 days ago)....and low and behold she is disabled from monthly migraines??

One time this young girl came in with her own xray of her mild scoliosis. Yes, she was "disabled" from it. Even on meds all she can do is sit and watch TV she says. She wanted percocet. Lol, my scoliosis is awful to look at, I have awful pain from it and there I was on my knees yanking her shoes off. She didn't get any narcotics from us. 3 days later she came in my EMS, she fell while wakeboarding! Hmmm....maybe *I* need to go on disability. I'll pass on the narcotics but I'll take a warm blanket, my free sandwich, and a soda oh and hurry UP! : )

steelcityrn, RN · May 17, 2011

I recently met a distant relative at a funeral who is diagnosed with bi-polar. He could not sit still at his own mothers funeral. He was her only child. He was disheveled, had no one there who he could call to give him a ride to his own mothers funeral!. He told me he took 3 buses to get there, 5 hour ride. He had become so isolated. He is on disability. He had graduated from law school, only to be unable to take his boards due to his exacerbations. When you are isolated, you rely on psych case managers, social workers to see that you can get rides to your appointments and pick up you medications, buy food and clothes ect. Where he lives, ano one would want to be. He would be the type to frequent an emergency room. I fell sorry for nurses who would turn themselves so hard to be unable to see the crisis in front of them. I am sure you see some abuse, but these are people who once they leave your E.R., go back to living in their own hell on earth.