Lea Vella was recently awarded a Disability Determination Process (DDP) research grant entitled “Cognitive Impairment & Disability Determination in the Sheltered Homeless”. The grant was awarded by Policy Research, Inc which is funded by the Social Security Administration (SSA). This grant program awards stipends to graduate students to conduct research on ways to improve the disability determination process for SSA’s two disability programs – Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The application processes for SSI and SSDI are complex, and members of the public with health problems and economic hardships often find it difficult to navigate this process.
