VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION and CAREER DEVELOPMENT – A NEW PERSPECTIVE

The occupational status of people with disabilities is a major global concern. Unemployment, underemployment, poverty and economic dependency remain significant challenges for this population despite the development of... [ view full abstract ]

The occupational status of people with disabilities is a major global concern. Unemployment, underemployment, poverty and economic dependency remain significant challenges for this population despite the development of vocational rehabilitation intervention services and research. Additionally, the challenges of today’s job market call for a new perspective on supported employment.
The leading model of vocational rehabilitation is supported employment – specifically, the individual placement and support (IPS) model. This model is widely regarded as having the best outcomes for people with disabilities seeking jobs in the open market. However, it has not been proven that IPS improves other aspects of work, namely - the diversity of occupations held by people with disabilities, the person-environment fit, one’s perception of health or sense of self-efficacy, all of which are significant factors, which support the process of career development. It would seem that the rapid placement process central to IPS misses the individual’s developmental process, and limits the individual’s future prospects.
It seems that the co-existence of theories and models held by occupational therapy and career-counseling practitioners can broaden the perspective of "work placement" to "career development" for people with disabilities receiving supported employment services.
The authors suggests boarded inter-disciplinary perspective to vocational rehabilitation process. Which brings together basic principles of occupational therapy models (as the model of Person-Environment-Occupation-Performance) and career counseling models (as Social Cognitive Theory, Life Designing Model of Career Construction, and Lifespan Life Theory). This perspective can be the base of new intervention methods for supported employment for people with disabilities.