Finding a job is never an easy thing to do however for people with disabilities it is a lot more difficult. The unemployment rate of people with disabilities is nearly double than those without a disability. As a mother of a child with a disability I tend to think about his future and can’t help but wonder the challenges he will face when he is old enough to look for a job. I know becoming a Certified Rehab Counselor (CRC) will allow me to learn how I can help people with all types of disabilities cope with its effects and help them find a meaningful job that will increase their independence and overall quality of life.
I am currently a Service Coordinator with Valley Association for Independent Living (VAIL) and I work with people with disabilities every day. The program that I work for is Independent
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However, I do have another reason that is much more personal and very close to my heart. Aside from being a professional in the field I am also the mother of two amazing little boys who are 5 and 2 years old. My oldest son was diagnosed with Autism and a speech delay over 1 year ago. As him mom I experience firsthand the difficulty and struggles he faces day by day. I know becoming a Certified Rehab Counselor will allow me to help children and adults like my son and with other types of disabilities to cope with the effect of their particular disability. Working with people with disabilities and being the parent of a child with a disability has played a major role in my decision to continue my education. This past year that I have had the opportunity to work in the field I have seen firsthand the need for Certified Rehabilitation Counselors in our community. As I continue to work with people of all ages and all types of disabilities I have noticed the difficulty that most of them have in getting a job or returning to work. Most of my consumer have mentioned to me time and time again that their
The author is affiliated with Mississippi Department Rehabilitation Services (MDRS). MDRS is the largest state agency committed solely to helping students/people with disabilities achieve their independence through employment. MDRS provides services designed to improve economic opportunities for consumers with physical and mental disabilities. The programs under the umbrella of MDRS includes the following: (a) Vocational Rehabilitation, (b) Vocational Rehabilitation for the Blind, (c) Supported Employment, (d) Transition Services, (e) AbilityWorks Inc., and (f) Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services. These centers provide vocational assessment, job training, and work experience for consumers with disabilities.
The overall employment rate for individuals with a disability who complete VR services are approximately 60%. The latest data posted by RSA 911 (2014), indicate that 508,359 persons with disabilities were eligible for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services in the 2004-2005 fiscal years. The data contained 616,879 cases of persons with various disabilities that applied for VR services. According to Honeycutt and Stapleton (2013) there were approximately 600,000 persons with disabilities that applied in a given year for VR services and 981,000 that were served total. Groomes, Vandergoot, Shoemaker, and Collins (2015) indicated that the VR program serves about 1.2 million persons with disability a year. Disabilities ranged from sensory/communicative impairments, physical impairments, and mental impairments. Of the clients, 78.7% coped with a significant disability and the majority of clients were male (54.5%). By completion of the services provided, 33.5% of the cases that were closed achieved an employment outcome (RSA,
In working as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, I am learning the importance of quality individualizes services and how they can support people with disabilities to prepare for obtaining employment. I have been have been participating closely with individuals that have a disability to help them achieve greater levels of independence by assisting them to develop goals and look for opportunities for employment. I am finding out that you have to really put a lot of effort as a vocational counselor in gathering medical, educational and different evaluations to determine eligibility and to help with the planning process of assisting the individual to choose the right occupation for themselves. In planning for a consumer to reach their
Mental Health Counselors are some of highest interacting people in the career industry. Having the highest ability to communicate with peers, you are faced with new challenges every single day. Many different types of people bring many different problems to the table. They are not expected to close the door due to the fact of not knowing how to help one. You will need a very high comprehension of the world around you, to be able to achieve high success rates in this career.
My main reason for wanting to counselor individuals, families, and groups is because I enjoy helping people and I would like to see them overcome their current issues. Also, I enjoy reading about psychology and counseling. Honestly, I am more passionate about studying the field of counseling than I am practicing it. I feel that my journey may lead me to researching. But throughout my career, I plan to display professionalism to help my clients.
The choices we make early in life have an enormous impact on our future. I have always known that I wanted to directly impact people’s lives and my personal experiences have set me on the school-counseling path. In the future, I would love to influence another generation of students to soar for their dreams.
At present, our society provides vocational rehabilitation services to the PWID because majority of them feel it is their moral and social obligation to contribute to the lives of those who are deserving of their help. Since about 50 million Americans have some kind of disability, which suggest that in every family we are likely to see someone who is dealing with disability.
I continually demonstrate a highly positive and contemporary attitude towards people with disabilities, coupled with an advanced understanding and knowledge of disabilities and their broader impacts. During my career, I have provided service to a diverse array of individuals. Specifically, in my current role as an APS 4 Compliance Officer with Centrelink, I have been responsible for providing friendly, efficient service to a range of customers, including people with disabilities. In doing so, I have gained significant insight into the many challenges and impacts of disabilities, and therefore aim to display a contemporary, supportive, and respectful attitude. Moreover, I possess excellent interpersonal skills and a high degree of empathy, allowing me to easily relate to others, and help them to accomplish their goals. Such skills are highlighted by my qualifications, as I hold a certification in Human Skills and Critical Thinking from New Intelligence. Additionally, I am a highly skilled interviewer, with the proven ability to develop and maintain exceptional professional relationships. As an APS 5 Investigator, I conducted records of interview, as well as taking numerous witness statements. Given this, I can
A community-focused, dedicated and accomplished Disability Support Worker, I am actively pursuing a challenging new career opportunity where I can utilise my qualifications, skills and demonstrated experience spanning 12 years. Proven ability to deliver activities to enhance the physical, social, emotional and intellectual development of children, youths, adults, aged clients and families, with a strong emphasis on protection, understanding and support. Leading by example with compassion and professionalism, I possess strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to provide social and emotional support to wide-ranging clients whilst promoting independence and self-worth. I have demonstrated a high level of proficiency related
Having workers with disabilities can be beneficial to organizations. Sotoa & Kleiner, 2013, recommend to incorporate disability into the agency’s diversity statement, increase supervisor knowledge of the employment of people with
A rehabilitation counselor is the central coordinator of setting up services and the client’s goals. They help develop and enhance the client’s skills to secure independence, employment and function in the community (Garske, 2003). In order to be able to rehabilitate the client and set up obtainable goals and a treatment plan, the rehabilitation counselor must first understand ADA, the client’s functional limitations, challenges and obstacles they are facing, along with barriers that may pose a threat to the success of the client. Rehabilitation counselors also set up a support network the client can reach out to and utilize, as well as resources and accommodations
My ultimately goal is to attain a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling, where I can develop an identity as a counselor and demonstrate a readiness to provide counseling services within the moral guidelines of counseling. As a candidate for the rehabilitation counseling program, I seek to gain significant knowledge of the actual counseling process where I can develop a personal approach to counseling with a clear understanding of counselor functions. However, in order to attain such skills, I must attain further education (a master’s degree). Therefore, I seek to gain as much educational training as possible to assure a professional identity, where I can apply my educational experience to the actual counseling process. Moreover, those
The career path of vocational rehabilitation counselor has come to me later in my professional career and it is not a path I would have anticipated taking. I do not recall taking interest assessments in high school, but if I had I would have probably fallen into the category of conventional personality type on John Holland’s personality scale. My early educational pursuits leaned toward administrative and business type positions. Most of my career I have worked in positions that were structured, predictable and very routine. Even though I worked in positions such as these I was often called upon to teach, train and instruct new employees. I found the most satisfaction in my job when I would work with individuals helping them to learn new tasks and obtain new skills.
I am a physiotherapist from Egypt .I am seeking to complete my PhD studies in the field of neuroscience as the main criteria of my practical experience is to deal with cerebral palsy children. Rehabilitation program for those patients is exhausted for therapists, parents and children. For therapist, the program needs high effort, for parents, the program needs a lot of time and money, for children, the program may be painful when doing certain exercises. Simply, the impacts on children and their families can be devastating. And life-time costs to the health care system can be very high. This is what motivated me to mainly focus on neuroscience as an important field that I come up with a new approach to addressing cerebral palsy by enhancing
A literature review illustrates how vital job placement services have been found to be in the job employment assistance endeavors. The review of previous studies reveals the “receipt of placement services” to be the “strongest predictor of employment outcomes” (Fleming et al., 2014, p. 7). A 2006 study characterized job placement as “the driving force behind the vocational rehabilitation program” (Fleming et al., 2014, p. 7). According to the researchers, the public Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) services have attained the status of “the most important vocational programs for persons with disabilities” (Fleming et al., 2014, p. 7). The authors cite the number of “new applicants [registered] nationally” as 564,908, in the 2011 Fiscal Year alone, as proof of the organization’s heavy caseload of new clients (Fleming et al., 2014, p. 7). These numbers indicate that rehabilitation services have been in high demand. Considering the importance of the vocational programs in assisting the disabled clients who are in need of employment, the authors determined that it was appropriate to examine the different ways these services can be rendered.