Vocational Rehabilitation

Vocational rehabilitation is a process that aids someone with functional, psychological, cognitive, emotional, or other health impairments overcome barriers to accessing, maintaining, or returning to employment.

Vocational rehabilitation professionals develop and present opinions about an individual’s likeliness to perform certain occupations and the most appropriate method to gain access in new career pathways. This can include a vocational rehabilitation plan. A vocational rehabilitation plan can help mitigate vocationally-relevant damages such as loss of earning capacity. Towards this end, a vocational expert can also help evaluate the costs of the vocational rehabilitation plan as part of calculating overall damages.

A vocational expert will consider an evaluee’s vocational limitations, functional limitations, personal strength, emotional functioning, and cognitive capabilities. Assessment of the costs of the rehabilitation plan typically include:

· Tuition and other related training costs
· Assistive technology needs costs
· Training duration to assess lost wages

Job analysis are used for recruitment, training, performance review, and process planning. Capturing the physical, mental, and social demands, and environmental conditions helps assess whether an employee can return to their regular job with or without accommodations. They also provide clarity in a return-to-work program. Having light duty job analyses ready when an employee is temporarily disabled can speed the return-to-work process and set the tone that a valuable employee will maintain productivity and pay whenever possible.

Providing job accommodations can provide a pathway to return-to-work before long-term disability sets in. Changes to the workstation, the work schedule, or work duties can allow someone with temporary disabilities to return to active participation. This helps provide the individual with purpose and the employer with getting work done. There may be cash benefits to employers including Stay at Work funds or job modification funds.

Having a return-to-work program in place before an employee becomes injured can help set the tone and the stage for success. Aligning the manager, supervisor, and employee expectations sets clear boundaries, roles, and goals for a return-to-work program. Coordination with the employee, the medical providers, human resources, and managers can ensure a timely and effective return-to-work.

Research is conducted to assess the health of geographic labor market. Broadly, labor market research can evaluate the health of an economy where labor is purchased by employers. We can assess the number of jobs broadly, the demographic makeup of the workforce, the type of occupations that exist, and they type of industries found in the labor market. More specifically, labor market research can be used to evaluate the likelihood of an individual obtaining employment within their labor market. We consider the jobs employer have, need filled, or are planning to fill. We consider the type of knowledge, skills, abilities and other qualifications (KSAOs) an individual brings to the labor market. Or, we may consider what an individual may need to obtain in order to compete for jobs. Labor market research can also provide valuable information on wages, job numbers, annual openings, and commuting patterns.

Vocational assessment starts with collecting information about an individual through interview, observation, inventories, surveys, and performance tests. The information is interpreted to determine that individual’s preferences, attitude, interests, abilities, academic and other functional performance capabilities, values, personality, and strengths and weaknesses relevant to others. Finally, the information is used to make inferences or decisions about the individual’s capacity to learn, perform certain tasks, and predict future success.

A Vocational Rehabilitation Plan may be needed in the following circumstances:

•Disability prevents you from working in your regular job and you lack the qualifications for new work
•You are terminated or laid off and cannot return to your previous industry
•You are a recently divorced homemaker and need new skills to compete in the labor market.

A Vocational Rehabilitation Plan includes an occupational goal; alternative goals; timeframes; costs; a detailed training or education plan; a list of tools, equipment, and supplies needed; accommodation needs; and an explanation of monitoring and support processes. Retraining may include academic education such as classes found at community college or a 4-year university. Training may be at a vocational-technical college where the individual gains more technical skills in a hands-on setting. There are also employers that sponsor retraining through on-the-job training. Sometimes Vocational Rehabilitation Plans involve a mix of college training and on-the-job training. Various disability benefits programs allow for payment of the retraining for those that meet individual programs’ requirements, an individual or family may choose to self-fund a Vocational Rehabilitation Plan, or sometimes the cost of retraining is wrapped into a legal settlement agreement.