What Happens When You File Your Veteran Mental Health Claim

Brienna has been working in healthcare since 2016, first providing behavioral therapy for individuals with learning disabilities and then as a Patient Care Technician in a hospital that specializes in traumatic brain Injuries.   These experiences further ignited her passion for understanding the interplay between body and mind and so she returned to school to pursue a nursing degree.  Since receiving her nursing degree from the University of Texas in 2020, she has worked in a variety of healthcare contexts including emergency care, substance use treatment centers, inpatient psychiatric units, and counseling services. She completed her Master of Science in Nursing in 2022 while also completing the Integrative Behavioral Health Scholors- Addiction and Recovery track. She has been board certified as a Psychiatric Mental Health Practitioner (PMHNP) since 2022.  

In addition to founding Johnson Mental Health, she also works as a PMHNP in an outpatient setting. She does not believe in a “one-size-fits-all” framework to care and instead applies an individualized approach, which understands the uniqueness and differences between each body and mind.  She prefers consistent collaboration with the patient, at the beginning of care planning and throughout the process, to make sure the goals and treatment plan align.   Her aim is to instill hope and empowerment, and be a leader on a path to healing. 

The idea for this company was incepted after a happenstance conversation with a veteran and his wife in the hallway of her office.  He emphasized the need for veterans to have additional evidence when submitting a disability claim with the VA and that the process was often times confusing, unclear, and difficult.  Mental Health providers play an important role in providing veteran disability evaluations and necessary documentation to substantiate their mental health disability claims.  Within a couple of months, Johnson Mental Health was born.

In order to support your veteran disability claim , the VA requires two critical pieces of evidence:

1. Current physical or mental disability that causes impairment in functioning in social and occupational domains and

 2. A link to an event, injury, or illness that happened while you were serving in the military to cause this disability

I provide:

• A comprehensive 90-minute psychiatric evaluation to evaluate and determine your mental health diagnoses  
• A Professional Medical Opinion document that follows the format of the DBQ (disability benefits questionnaire)
• The Nexus Letter. The Nexus Letter must be written by a licensed medical professional and is the critical document that establishes the link between your mental illness and an event, injury, or illness that happened while serving in the military.