<prompt> Human: Im posting on behalf of my mother. Shes been a gradually increasingly dysfunctional person for around thirty years. Her situation is currently worse than its ever been and Id like to find a way to help her.A quick history:- She suffered severe abuse as a child, fled the home, acquired a GED, and worked steady jobs for a while. The way she got her shit together after that upbringing is really something to be proud of.- As an adult she suffered from frequent recurring anxiety attacks associated with her screwed up childhood.- She chose to self-medicate with alcohol and became a severe alcoholic.- Incidents associated with alcoholism and anxiety ended her career around ten years ago. She has not worked since.- Since then shes bounced around between leeching off of various friends and family one by one until they cut her off and kicked her out onto the street. Each time she ended up on the street, shed find her way into a mental hospital or a drug rehab program. After completing the program successfully shed end up leeching off of another friend of family member again until they cut her off again and kicked her out onto the street again. The cycle remained unbroken for a decade and ended recently.- With no one left to leech off of now, for the last several months shes been rotating between a series of homeless shelters.- She claims to have been attempting to file for disability for several years now, but it never seems to get any traction. Shes been vague about the details of what process shes gone through, so Im not sure how hard shes been trying or if shes been doing it right.My take on the situation:I, like many others associated with her, have offered her material help in the past, but it hasnt worked out. The last time she lived with me, her alcoholism and mental instability caused a series of incidents and severely disrupted my family. My wife and I, like everyone else associated with her, have resolved ourselves not to let her live with us again, at least until she shows evidence of having gotten her shit together.I have offered her other kinds of assistance as well, but she squanders it. Money given to her often becomes alcohol. I bought her one of those nice new Android phones so she could navigate public transit more easily using the Google Maps public transit app. She claims the phone was stolen. Same with the netbook I bought her. That disappeared too.I dont doubt given her living conditions that she probably is a victim of theft occasionally, but Ive also seen clear evidence that some of the help Ive given her has directly translated into alcohol. So I wont be doing any more of that.But I still want to help her. I just want to do it in a way that wont cause any further harm to myself or my family. On the surface, her plan to get on disability and begin rebuilding her life makes sense. But I dont know anything about disability and Im not sure why she hasnt managed to get it yet.Some questions:- What is the exact process for filing for disability?- What kind of people qualify?- Does she have a good case?- Does it really take years to get it, or does she just suck at the paperwork?- If she sucks at the paperwork, is it possible for me to take over the application process on her behalf?- If disability is not an option, what else can she do?Quasi-philosophical political questions:- If a person in this country cannot or will not work, has no savings, has no family, has no friends, and cant qualify for much if any social assistance, is there really nothing left for them except to live on the streets? Is that really who we are as a society? Is that really how society should be? Shouldnt our tax dollars be going towards offering broken people more competent help than this?TL;DR: Mother is homeless. Wants to get on disability. Doesnt seem to be happening. I want to help. Im not sure how to help her help herself.Edits: typos, formatting.Assistant: Your motives are admirable. But you cant fix her without her help.As far as filing for social security disability, check the social security web site. You can apparently file online. Ed: alcoholism by itself isnt a qualified disability.Human: Is there a way I can file on her behalf? Waiting for her to complete the process on her own has resulted in literally years of waiting.She claims that her case workers counselors therapists etc over the years have told her that irrespective of her alcoholism, that her underlying anxiety issues give her a good case for disability. Ive never spoken to one of the social assistance people whove worked her directly though, so I really have no idea if thats true. Im not even sure if she really does have legit anxiety issues or if the only anxiety she faces is alcohol withdrawal. I have no way of knowing for sure which it is.  <response>: I dont think you can file on her behalf unless you are her trustee or caretaker, which is a legal hurdle you would have to cross first. You can contact social services and see if you can get her a social worker to aid. Also, many hostiptals will assign a case worker and aid with disability forms, if shes been in recently. Again, the gaurdianship and priviacy issues arise. If she wont let you talk to her support team, there isnt much you can do. 