Hi - I believe that OT's being involved in vocational rehab is pretty common, but i am getting involved in a area that i am sure is very new for OT.
i have just become involved in a program through my agency here in Minnesota. My agency has boat a rehab division and an employment resources program. The employment resources division largely concentrates on the welfare-to-work program that was put into place through the welfare reform (TANF) of about 5 years ago. Through this reform, the is a time limit of five years to receive aid to families, then you either need to get a job, be qualified as disabled, or you get nothing. There has been one consulting OTR to all the agencies in our county (15) and she has been very busy, so my agency has decided to utilize their own OT department to work with those individuals who are coming up on the end of thier five year peroid and still haven't found a job.. We started in February with developing a progam. So far we are completing funtional skills assessments with the participants in their homes to help determine what type of problem solving, time management, fmily stressors, etc.. they have. Then we can give recommendations to the counselor to determine what kind of further services they need. Many of the people who are having difficulty have been found to have low IQ (50-70) and also we are finding a lot of immigrants who have low IQ. There are not a lot of programs for supportive employment for these people, so we are having a hard time. I find it hard to assess these people to determine their strengths and weaknesses, as they do not have really obvious disablities in a physical nature. Any hints, or more discussion would be good, too. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx *********��*********** Unsubscribe? Send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the message's *body*, put the following text: unsubscribe OTlist ** List messages are archived at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] *********��***********
