Waukesha shelter paves way for aid to needy-Agency helps them apply for, receive U.S. benefits

Waukesha - Lisa Filerman never thought she would become a statistic: a person with disabilities, unemployed and living on food stamps. Choosing money over medicine. At risk of losing her home.

Well-educated, Filerman was paid $50,000 a year as a respiratory therapist when fierce back pain increasingly imposed on her job performance and then her ability to look after herself. A work injury made matters worse. Filerman lost her job and was diagnosed with degenerative joint disease in her back and fibromyalgia, a complex and chronic condition characterized by widespread pain and fatigue.

Knowing she was running out of insurance and savings, Filerman applied for federal Social Security disability insurance while she paid utilities with her credit cards and pursued treatment. The federal letter she received was the same letter that 63% of people who apply for supplemental security income or disability benefits receive:

Denied.

"I was suicidal," Filerman said.

But with help from a new program led by the 25-year-old Hebron House of Hospitality in Waukesha, which has recognized the nightmare that applying for various government aid programs has become, Filerman reapplied for the benefits.

Hebron House employees assembled and organized her medical records, wrote a necessary "functional assessment" that Filerman was unable to write herself, found out the government needed to see new X-rays and drove her to the appointment. They made sure the application paperwork was filled out correctly and sent it to the appropriate county office for preliminary approval.

Then Filerman received another federal letter:

Approved.

From May to February, Hebron House has brought $402,780 of federal money to Waukesha County residents who probably never would have received the federal benefits otherwise. That's 61 people who, because of their now-steady income, have or are being set up with a stable place to live, consistent medical attention and regular medications, said Bernie Juno, executive director of Hebron House.

With more than a 90% success rate for applicants - compared with the national average of about 37% Hebron House has instituted a system change as part of a pilot project based on outreach, access and discovery. The change has been so successful that the State of Wisconsin has asked Hebron House to train lead agencies in other counties, and Milwaukee expects to follow soon with a plan to intensify its efforts.

"We take the hardest cases there are," Juno said, as she explained how the new Waukesha Expediting SSI program is revolutionizing the way in which people obtain supplemental security income or Social Security disability insurance.

Functional summary

The key is submitting an accurate functional summary required in the federal application, Juno said. Unlike doctor's notes, which describe a patient during his or her 15-minute office visit, a functional summary details a patient's daily habits and what kind of assistance he or she requires.
"Most of these people will tell you to your face that they are just fine, that they don't need any help," said Joana Hemschemeyer, Expediting SSI program coordinator. "The functional summary helps paint a more realistic picture of that person, what they've been through and whether they can follow the plot line of a TV show or not."

To receive accurate information about people, Hebron House spent almost two years educating and then enlisting the help of private and public agencies as well as homeless shelters, meal sites, food pantries, churches, hospitals and physicians.
Cooperation from these partners increased the communication with and number of referrals between the agencies and Hebron House.

Reporting observations

Some of this is "participation by observation," Juno said. Before changing the way the system works, a meal site worker might not have ever documented a homeless man's getting his food and then just sitting and staring off into space. Now the worker relays that information, and Hebron House can follow up with the man or continue his application by noting his functional assessment.

In the best cases, people with disabilities get out of the shelters and into stable living situations, which creates more space for people who find themselves homeless and in an urgent situation. It also reduces the strain on emergency room services, jails and prisons and reduces the amount of local tax dollars spent on these services.

It's also hard to explain, admits Tim Rowe, associate director of the Hebron House.

"You can show people a shelter," he said. They get that. "But you can't show them a system change."