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Q&A about Vocational Rehabilitation

Questions and Answers on the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How about Vocational Rehabilitation...

WHO

Who is vocational rehabilitation for?

Vocational rehabilitation is for people who experience health/medical conditions, disabilities, injuries, illnesses, and/or functional limitations; those who want or need to access, maintain, or return to work; and those who seek assistance with tools to empower themselves to achieve their career, employment, and work goals.

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You may be experiencing a disabling health or medical condition that creates a barrier or limitation in your daily personal or work life. How will you remove or overcome this barrier and accommodate any limitations?

 

You may be thinking about starting work for the first time, dealing with issues about how to maintain a job, or planning to return to work after recovering from a disease, injury, illness, or sickness. How will you do this?

 

You may live in Penticton, the Okanagan Valley, Lower Mainland, or somewhere else in British Columbia, and be wanting support with exploring your personal, career, or independent living options. Who will assist you with the individualized 1-on-1 services you need?

 

You may want to be involved in meaningful and purposeful activities in your life to feel a sense of attachment, belonging, and identity in your community. Where will you start?

WHAT

What is vocational rehabilitation?

Vocational rehabilitation is a multidisciplinary process to assist people with health/medical conditions, disabilities, injuries, illnesses, and/or functional limitations with removing or overcoming barriers to accessing, maintaining, or returning to work activities. It involves assessing individual needs and strengths; functional capacity building; counselling and guidance; job demands analysis and matching; vocational planning; vocational education and training; enhancing social competencies; case/disability management and service coordination; job development, placement, and on the job supported employment; accommodations and assistive technology; and follow up support.

WHEN

When is the right time for vocational rehabilitation?

It may be the right time for vocational rehabilitation services if you're thinking about accessing employment for the first time, if you're concerned about your capacity to stay in and maintain your current job, or if you're thinking of returning to work after recovering from a health/medical related illness, injury, or disease. 

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The most effective timing for participating in vocational rehabilitation also depends on whether you're experiencing acute, sub-acute, or chronic health conditions and where you're at with medical interventions and treatments to promote recovery and rehabilitation. There should be a link in coordinating the transition between medical, psychological. and vocational rehabilitation. This process would ideally involve a continuum from acute medical or psychological care, to post-acute hospital based or in-patient rehabilitation, and onto community based functional or outpatient rehabilitation. Then, a person may be ready for vocational rehabilitation.

 

It's also worth considering what stage of readiness for change you're currently at. Ideally, you've already started thinking about the change you seek, or you've begun to prepare/plan for it, or even take action. Here is a brief overview of the stages of change:

 

  1. Precontemplation is when we don’t want to change or have no intention of changing our ways of thinking, feeling, or acting.

  2. Contemplation is when we're thinking about change and aware of a problem that exists, but we're not committed to taking action.

  3. Preparation is when we're getting ready for change and have an intention or commitment to take action to address a problem.

  4. Action is when we're actively doing something to change our way of thinking, feeling, or acting.

  5. Maintenance is when we're regularly practicing maintaining changes and our new way of thinking/feeling/acting has been replacing our old habits.

  6. Recurrence or Relapse is when we're falling back into old patterns in our way of thinking, feeling, and acting.

WHERE

Where does vocational rehabilitation take place?

Vocational rehabilitation can take place in a variety of environments and settings, depending on a person's needs, strengths, barriers, limitations, preferences, and goals. For example, most if not all of the phases or stages and sequence of steps involved in vocational rehab services can be completed either face-to-face / in-person or virtually by video and phone from home, community, office, clinic, school, and employment locations. There is flexibility, but it is important for the client and vocational rehabilitation professional to be able to see each other's facial expressions and body language, at least in the beginning for the purposes of an intake interview or vocational assessment. This way, there is an opportunity to build a professional relationship based on collaboration, honesty, rapport, safety, and trust. 

WHY

Why would I do vocational rehabilitation?

You might consider doing Vocational rehabilitation if:

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  • You're aware of a health condition or problem in your life that interferes with your participation in daily activities for career, employment, or work goals; and/or something that creates a barrier or limitation in your daily life. You're thinking about ways to change and improve the situation.

  • You want to create a career, employment, or work goal and take action to address your barriers, limitations, and unmet needs related to a health condition.

  • You're taking action to change your health for a personal, career, or other life reason, and need support with maintaining the change to prevent the problem from recurring.

  • A health or medical problem in your life has been aggravated, reactivated, or is recurring, and you need support for coping with or managing it to for career, employment, or work reasons.

  • You want to follow an effective, step-by-step process using the right tools and resources to access, maintain, or return to work activities.

  • You want to be empowered to achieve your personal, career, or independent living goals for health and qualify of life.

HOW

How does vocational rehabilitation work?

Vocational rehabilitation works by following an effective, sequential, evidence-informed, and best-practice process that includes at least six stages of steps for services:

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  1. Initial Consultation 

  2. Intake Interview

  3. Vocational Assessment

  4. Vocational Planning

  5. Counselling and Interventions:

    • job preparation/readiness

    • resumes and cover letters

    • job search and application activities

    • job development

    • interview practice

    • job placement

    • accommodations

    • on-the-job support and sustainment

  6. Closure Meeting

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