The Roles and Functions of Public and Private Sector Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors - Essay Example

Introduction The major goal of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors is to empower individuals and enable them to attain a stable and healthy mental condition, so that such individuals can be engage in attaining economic independence by maximizing the economic opportunities that occurs to them (Strauser, 2013). Thus, it is an area of counseling that focuses on individuals with diverse disability, seeking to help them on how to attain self-sufficiency by increasing their chances of employment through having a positive mental health and independence. Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling can occur in two forms; the public and the private rehabilitation counseling (All psychology schools, 2013). While both forms of counseling are geared towards achieving the same goal of empowering individuals with disabilities to enhance their employability and economic independence, there are various areas that the two forms differ, notably in the approach and the way of delivering the relationship of the counselor to the affected individuals (Rubin & Roessler, 2001). Therefore, this discussion seeks to analyze the similarities and the differences between Public and Private Sector Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling. Comparison between the roles and functions of Public and Private Rehabilitation Counselors Consulting, coordinating and communicating Rehabilitation counselors, both private and public, work with the disabled person as a whole, and thus require being competent in a variety of skills, regarding human therapies (Rubin & Roessler, 2001). Therefore, both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors perform the role of therapist, a guidance counselor, as well as that of a vocational assessor (Chubon, 1992). Considering that a rehabilitation counselor should work towards maximizing the quality of life of individuals suffering from disabilities, they cannot afford to be specialists in just a single area of counseling therapy. It is fundamental that the rehabilitation counselor should not just focus on enhancing the mental health of the individual, but also ensuring that the individual is physically and emotionally fit to be integrated into the mainstream societal system (Rubin & Roessler, 2001). The counseling skills are vital to enable the counselor interact productively with the disabled person, and be able understand their innate needs to transform their mental status into a positive outlook that can be integrated into the mainstream social system. The coordinating skills are also required to enable the counselor understand and manage all the variables that could have put the disabled individual in the current position, while the consulting and the communication skills are relevant for engaging the disabled individual and help them overcome all the barriers that hinder them from fitting into the mainstream social system (Riggar & Lorenz, 1985). Mediating and bridging the gap between the isolated people with disabilities and the society People with disabilities are often isolated by their families and the community at large, making it difficult for them to pursue any gainful engagement (Wagner & McMahon, 2004). Therefore, the role of both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors is to bridge the gap between the isolated disabled persons, and the rest of the society, through identifying the existing impediments that hinders a constructive relationship between such individuals and the society, and removing the impediments (Whitehouse, 1975). The role of the rehabilitation counselors is to enable people with disabilities to make informed choices, regarding their lives. However, this can only be achieved, if the whole society is engaged in accepting and integrating the persons with disabilities into the mainstream societal activities, such as granting them opportunities for gainful employment. Thus, the role of both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors is to bridge the gap existing between the people with disabilities and the mainstream society, through preparing the individuals with disability for a life in the mainstream society, by removing the existing barriers such as addictions and impending behaviors (Strauser, 2013). Assessing the required services for empowering the disabled Both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors work towards achieving the common goal of identifying the environmental and social barriers that hinders the individuals with disabilities from achieving a productive life (Whitehouse, 1975). Thus, both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors perform the role and function of working with professional and advocacy groups, towards identifying the barriers that hinder the individuals with mental disabilities from realizing economic independence, and then devising the ways through which such barriers can be eliminated. This way, the counselors enable the individuals suffering from disabilities to maximize the opportunities around them, because they work towards removing all the barriers that hinders the disabled people (Riggar & Lorenz, 1985). The counselors’ works towards removing barriers such as behavioral problems that may make such individuals fail to adhere to the operational laws, or certain addictions that prevents such individuals from living a productive life. This function is applicable to both the public and the private setting, which is in line with the foundation of the philosophy of rehabilitation counseling, which perceives a disabled person as an asset in the society, and requires that people with disability should not be secluded, but rather integrated into the independent society (Chubon, 1992). Helping people with disability to find and keep satisfying jobs The other major area of similarity in the roles and functions between the private and the public sector rehabilitation counseling is the fact that; both sets of counselors works towards empowering the individuals with disabilities, so that they can attain economic independence and self-sufficiency, through helping them overcome the negative mental status, and instead gain a positive mental health condition, that can in turn enable them gain employment (Strauser, 2013). Both the public and private rehabilitation counselors assists individuals to pursue independence, through helping them realize their potential to cater for their needs, while also helping them to implement personal adjustment, towards taking advantage of the available economic opportunities that can create independence, such as taking on gainful employment (All psychology schools, 2013). Therefore, both the public and the private rehabilitation counselors play a common role of assessing and coordinating the services that are required to enable the individuals suffering from disabilities, most especially those suffering from cognitive, physical and functional disabilities, psychological as well as learning disabilities to gain recognition in the society, and also participate in gainful economic activities that eventually helps them attain self-sufficiency (Whitehouse, 1975). Contrast between the roles and functions of Public and Private Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling The major difference between the roles and functions of a public and a private counselors is that; the public counselors has only a single goal, to improve the quality of life of a disabled person, through rehabilitating their mental health into a constructive and positive outlook, while a private rehabilitating counselor has an additional major function; to cut down the costs of the workers’ compensation from injuries (Rubin & Roessler, 2001). Therefore, while a public rehabilitation counselor works with a disabled person, also known as the consumer, the private rehabilitation counselor works with a consumer and a client, who in most cases is the organization or the private employer of the injured worker, not just to help the injured worker regain from the injury and come back to a form that can enable him/her to seek new employment, but also to ensure that the cost of compensation that the former employer will incur is less, in the form of payment of damages to the worker suffering from injuries (Riggar & Lorenz, 1985). The major areas of specialization of a private rehabilitation counselor, on top of mental therapy, is case management and forensic rehabilitation, which are essential components of curbing costs arising from injuries to workers (Chubon, 1992). The relationship between the counselor and client The relationship between that of a public rehabilitation counselor and that of a disabled person is normally inform of a counselor-to- client relationship, since it does not involve any claims being made by the disabled individual (Wagner & McMahon, 2004). On the other hand, the relationship between a private rehabilitation counselor and the disabled individual is that of a counselor-to-claimant relationship, because the disabled individual is an injured worker, who is seeking compensation from the employer, or the insurance firm (Rubin & Roessler, 2001). The relationship between the counselor and the disabled individual is the other major factor that differentiates the roles and functions of a public rehabilitation counselor from that of a private counselor. While the public counselor is normally retained by the disabled individual/consumer, whom the counselor is assisting to find an alternative economically viable engagement, the private rehabilitation counselor is retained by the insurance firm covering the employee, which is fundamentally working in courtesy of the organization that had employed the injured worker (Riggar & Lorenz, 1985). Ethics of Work resumption The ultimate goal of a private rehabilitation counselor is to rehabilitate the injured worker, so that the worker can go back to working with the same employer. This is because, in so doing, the worker will have reduced the costs that the employer could have incurred, through the reduction of the indemnification benefit (Strauser, 2013). However, the ultimate goal of a public rehabilitation counselor is just to ensure that the disabled individual attains a positive mental health, which can enable the individual to be comfortably rehabilitated into the society, while making such an individual a ready candidate for gainful employment (Chubon, 1992). Therefore, the ethical aspect of the private rehabilitation counselor’s role is normally put into question, considering that the counselor’s main aim is to benefit the employer through cost reduction, as opposed to purely addressing the needs of the disabled individual. References All psychology schools. (2013). Interview with a Rehabilitation Counseling Professional. http://www.allpsychologyschools.com/psychology-careers/article/rehabilitation-counselor-interview Chubon, R. (1992). Defining rehabilitation from a systems perspective: Critical implications. Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, 23(1), 27-32. Riggar, T. F., & Lorenz, J. R. (1985). Readings in rehabilitation administration. Albany: State University of New York Press. Rubin, S. E., & Roessler, R. T. (2008). Foundations of the vocational rehabilitation process (6th ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED. Strauser, D. (2013). Career development, employment, and disability: From theory to practice. S.l.: Springer Publishing. Wagner, C. & McMahon, B.T. (2004). “Motivational Interviewing and Rehabilitation Counseling Practice”. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 47(3) 152-161. Whitehouse, F. A. (1975). Rehabilitation Clinician. Journal of Rehabilitation, 41(3), 24-26. Read More