Vocational rehabilitation

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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

References