Article Outline
Vocational Rehabilitation, process of preparing people with physical, sensory, emotional, developmental, or other disabilities for employment, placing them in jobs, and helping them cope effectively with their environment and to function as independently as possible. In the United States the term is generally associated with the programs operated by the states in cooperation with federal government. Increasingly, however, vocational rehabilitation programs involve the private sector funded by insurance as well as by business and industry. Implementation of an individual program of vocational rehabilitation might require the following elements.
Because disabilities are often the consequence of accident, disease, or a congenital condition, rehabilitation begins with intervention and appropriate medical services. Surgery might be required, for instance, to correct a heart problem. In other cases, treatment is supportive and designed, for example, to reduce the effects of arthritis, to restore function lost as the result of a stroke, to treat the motor disorders of cerebral palsy, to decrease seizures from epilepsy, to minimize the effects of pulmonary disease, to retrain persons with speech disorders, to assist the deaf in lipreading or the proper perception of sound through hearing aids, or to teach the blind to read the Braille System.
Appropriate prosthetic devices (see Prosthetics) must also be furnished; these include artificial limbs for amputees, wheelchairs for people with paralysis of their legs, and crutches or braces for those with some ability to walk. Training might be required for persons to use these devices effectively.
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Psychological Services
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A sometimes overlooked aspect of rehabilitation involves the emotional concerns that might be associated with disability. Psychotherapy and vocational counseling can do much to help a person cope with the changes that have occurred as a result of the disability and restoration of partial function.
Placement in a job is the next step in rehabilitation. Although a person might have acquired great facility in the use of supportive devices, he or she might require training in new skills under new working conditions. People who never acquired a skill or who have very limited skills because of disability, or because of disadvantages of environment or education, might require training in work appropriate to their capacities. Formal schooling might remove barriers for those with basic ability. Adaptation and use of special tools or equipment can also help. The elimination of barriers through the use of ramps for people who cannot climb stairs, automobiles that are specially equipped for those with limited use of their limbs, and other adaptations can add to self-sufficiency and independence. Rehabilitation counselors who provide follow-up services can help to assure the disabled person's success in competitive employment.
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