Vocational rehabilitation

File:Born a Man.webm

A 1964 educational film on vocational rehabilitation and Orientation and Mobility for a newly blind man, made with assistance from the California Department of Rehabilitation.

Vocational rehabilitation is a process which enables persons with functional, psychological, developmental, cognitive and emotional impairments or health disabilities to overcome barriers to accessing, maintaining or returning to employment or other useful occupation.

Vocational rehabilitation can require input from a range of health care professionals and other non-medical disciplines such as disability employment advisers and career counselors. Techniques used can include:

• assessment, appraisal, program evaluation and research.
• goal setting and intervention planning.
• provision of health advice and promotion, in support of returning to work.
• support for self-management of health conditions.
• making adjustments to the medical and psychological impact of a disability.
• case management, referral, and service co-ordination.
• psychosocial interventions.
• career counseling, job analysis, job development, and placement services.
• functional and work capacity evaluations.

Vocational rehabilitation practitioners are often governed by standards of practice. In the United Kingdom these are produced by the Vocational Rehabilitation Association.

See also

• Rehabilitation counseling
• European Platform for Rehabilitation