DVA does not need another letter that says you are unwell. It needs a report that diagnoses a condition, links it to service (or to aggravation), describes function in the language of the impairment tables, and says whether the condition is stable. Treating specialists beat medico-legals you have never met — unless the treating report is vague.
Brief the specialist in writing
Do not walk in and hope. Give the doctor: the claim number and the question DVA asked; the relevant GARP M chapter if you know it; a one-page chronology; previous reports; and the exact descriptors you think apply (for example, need for supervision in daily living, disturbance of behaviour, range of motion). Ask them to address diagnosis, causation/aggravation, current function, treatment already tried, stability, and prognosis. Use the specialist briefing letter in Letters.
Psychiatric reports
- Diagnosis using accepted criteria, not a vibe.
- Functional impact written against the psychiatric table descriptors — thinking, behaviour, self-care, need for supervision, reaction to ordinary stress.
- If administrative processes (delay, restricted contact, a welfare check) have aggravated symptoms, the psychiatrist should say so as a clinical opinion, not as a legal conclusion.
- Comment on capacity for work, study, and vocational rehabilitation if incapacity is live.
Physical conditions and hardship
Ankle, shoulder, elbow, knee, skin, hearing, migraine, and sleep conditions are not a side quest. They are why you cannot sit in a claims process, cannot work, and cannot do self-care on a bad week. Get them into the same file as the psychiatric claim if they interact. Combined impairment, household services, and incapacity all get stronger when the physical limits are in the same story as the mental ones.
Stability and “reasonable treatment”
PI waits on permanence. If a delegate says you have not had “reasonable treatment”, ask them to name the treatment, the clinician who recommended it, and why the treatment already done does not count. A never-ending treatment loop is a delay tactic unless it is genuinely indicated.